


Hospital Discharge

by Sp00py



Series: TV Mono Cinematic Universe [2]
Category: Little Nightmares (Video Game)
Genre: Biting, Blood, Fainting, First Kiss, Gen, Horror, Jealousy, Nosebleeds, POV Alternating, POV Third Person, children dying bc it's LN, children fighting, its the girl from one of the ln2 comics, poorly defined illness, six is a troll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29191248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sp00py/pseuds/Sp00py
Summary: The girl escaped the doctor, but she has yet to escape the hospital. Luckily, Mono and Six are here to help. Maybe.
Relationships: Mono & Nosebleed (Little Nightmares), Mono & Six (Little Nightmares)
Series: TV Mono Cinematic Universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2152806
Comments: 63
Kudos: 163





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I fell in love with that little bloody nosed weirdo in Episode 3 of the Little Nightmares 2 comics. So I wrote a short smth. And now it is not a short smth.

The world faded in and out, and she had to sit down. She fell over, instead. The ground was much farther than she thought, and she barely caught herself before she ate tile. Blood spattered on her arms and hands. It reminded her of bloody handprints pressed against glass, of missing children, taken… taken --

The doctor -- her head flew up, everything spun in a swirl of sterile lights and black shadows. Instead of running, she collapsed. Ragged, torn nails dug into the grout, and she dragged herself to the underside of a chair, a trail of blood droplets and smears the only sign of her presence. He wasn’t there, but who knew when he’d return. She needed to run. Sometimes, though, when the headaches got too bad and the blood never seemed to stop dripdripdripping, she could do nothing but sleep.

She wanted to run, but she was so tired. Her arms pillowed her head from the cold, broken tile, and she blacked out.

**MONO**

Six wasn’t focusing on the mannequins, or the doctor, or anything else she should really be focusing on, in Mono’s opinion. No, instead she was doing that predatory crouch that made his skin crawl, hands to the ground, eyes locked on something farther away, while Mono’s scanned the ceiling.

He fumbled for her hand or coat or something to pull her along since the coast was clear, but when he found nothing, he looked back down. Six was gone. Of course.

The yellow of her coat disappears underneath a hard, plastic chair. There was a lumpy shadow there with her, and Mono’s heart clenched in fear. For Six, at first, which was stupid, but then for whoever that is _with_ Six, which was far more deserved.

“Six!” he hissed. She glanced back, then, like a moody cat, turned her attention to the person again.

Mono sighed and, after another check, scrambled across the open hall after her. With three people, the gap under the chair was crowded, but the third person hadn’t even stirred. If not that Six was so interested, Mono would have thought she was dead.

He shoved Six aside to see if the girl (it was definitely a girl, with all the hair Mono was having to be careful not to step on) needed help. This close, he smelled what had caught Six’s attention. Blood, in a small, coagulated puddle underneath the girl’s head. Six crowded in close again, and Mono shooed her away so he could check her.

He slipped a hand underneath the girl’s head and gingerly lifted it. Once out of shadow, it was easier to see the origin of the blood. Not a head wound, but a nosebleed, dried now with a crusty trail down her chin and arms.

Her eyes snapped open, and small hands shoved Mono back, out from under the chair. He froze. She froze. She recovered quicker, and ran.

That was the wrong move, because Six pounced, and caught her before she made it even a few steps. Mono shot to his feet and ran over, whisper-shouting for Six to be careful. They’re supposed to _help_ , and right now all they’d managed was some barely contained chaos.

The girl was terrified, understandably, with Six’s grin so close to her face. Her brown eyes rolled, searching the ceiling, before settling on Mono.

“Sorry,” he whispered, once it was clear Six wasn’t going to hurt her. “We should get out of here,” he then addressed to Six, who got off the girl and nodded. He offered the girl a hand, and, wary gaze on Six, she took it.

The girl wiped her nose with her free arm then pulled Mono along, Six trailing after. The girl clearly knew these halls better than either of them, and led them to a vent already pried open. She waved them in first, then followed behind, and there was the sound of the grate being pulled back on.

As they crept along, Six bumped up close to Mono. The girl crawled further ahead, leaving behind a trail of blood droplets that Mono tried to avoid.

Six leaned in, and he leaned in too, ready for her to impart her thoughts. “Nosebleed,” she whispered, voice that quiet rasp of someone who barely spoke.

Mono had to hide a snort, because why did Six have to say the one thing that had been distracting him this whole time. It was just so obvious and _weird_. Was she okay?

The girl’s braided head turned, curiosity on her face as they tittered behind her, but Six waved her on.

They emerged into what was clearly a nest of old gowns, pillows, and hospital food containers. Behind it yawned a black pit of a hole that looked dug straight through the vent wall. Given the state of the girl’s hands, Mono couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows as he connected the dots. The girl pulled out a few cups of jello.

Six shook her head to the tentatively offered cup, and the girl turned to Mono. He took it and tried not to think about Six and food and the rusty old bloodstains everywhere.

“I’m Mono,” he whispered, taking off his bag so he could slurp the jello. “And that’s Six.”

Six pulled her knees to her chin, eyes locked on the girl’s face. They stared at each other. Six licked her lips.

“Oh,” the girl said, so quietly it didn’t even qualify as a whisper. Mono had to lean in to hear her better, even in their cramped quarters. “I’m…” She looked at her wrist, which had nothing on it, and dropped that line of thought. “You don’t look like you’re from here.”

_Don’t call her Nosebleed. Don’t do it_ , Mono thought. “We’re not. We’re trying to get to the signal tower.” He gestured wildly in some direction he hopes might contain the signal tower.

“What’s that?”

“It… uh…. It’s a tower. That sends out a signal?”

The girl stared at Mono, then plugged up one nostril and snorted hard. A clot followed by a spray of blood splashed down her front. _Nosebleed._ At least Six was in good company so far as lacking social graces.

“I haven’t figured out how to get out of here,” she admitted, finally, gesturing to twisted up and worn down spoons, forks, pencil nubs. She wiped again at her nose, and her arm came away streaked with fresh blood.

“Are you okay?”

She looked down at her arm (Six did too, and Mono pretended he didn’t notice), as though she’d not realized she was bleeding. “Yeah. It does that sometimes.”

As Nosebleed (the girl!) and Mono ate their jello, Mono tried to figure out how to proceed. She offered what input she could, from a very limited experience of the hospital and nothing else. Mono had to keep tearing his gaze away from the growing bloom of blood on her shirt, overlaying what he’d originally thought was a large dirt stain. Though the drip was slow, it was constant.

“Sometimes there’s a tall man who comes to visit the doctor,” Nosebleed said, pointing up. “He takes some of the kids. The doctor... “ she trailed off. “There might be something to help you in his office.”

“We can go there, then, and --”

Nosebleed straightened, and her ‘no’ was the loudest Mono had heard her speak, before she dropped back to the barely-there whisper. “He’s still working. He’ll take you and he’ll cut in and -- and you need to wait.”

Mono didn’t like the idea of wasting time, but he also didn’t want to be cut open or whatever the doctor did to kids. He’d seen the man already, and once was more than enough. But if his office had any clues...

“Do the vents lead to him? Not so I can go, but I just want to look.”

Nosebleed nodded, grabbed a wrapper, and soon Mono had a poorly drawn map leading to the doctor’s office. He wasn’t surprised she didn’t want to show him herself, but he would have liked a guide.

“Six?” he asked, when it became obvious Nosebleed was staying behind. Six pulled her eyes from Nosebleed and blinked curiously at Mono. “Wanna… go find the doctor?”

Six shook her head.

_That_ was surprising, and Mono glanced at Nosebleed, who had taken to ignoring them and readjusting the pile of clothes that made up her bed. His brow scrunched up, but he shoved down the unease. This was just reconnaissance, so no need for an entire party. Besides, it was safer in here than anywhere else, Mono was sure. Six would be fine.

He yanked on his bag and crawled out into the maze of the vents.

**SIX**

Nosebleed was sleeping. She had gone from entirely awake and alert to unconscious in a scary quick time. Six wasn’t even sure she’d actually finished organizing her bedding the way she’d wanted before she went down. Her nose was still bleeding, too.

Six sat next to her head and watched the sluggish river tracing down her freckled face. From Six’s understanding, kids didn’t bleed this much, usually. It was why she’d latched onto this one so eagerly. Nosebleed was sick, or injured, or something that meant she wasn’t long for this world. So Mono would understand, right?

She glanced over to where Mono had gone, and rolled her eyes. He probably wouldn’t, no. He kept wanting to help people. Six knew not everyone was worth saving, but Mono still hadn’t figured that out yet. Nosebleed fell into that category. Mostly because Six was hungry right now, because keeping Mono meant keeping him happy, and keeping him happy meant _not_ eating children.

She poked Nosebleed in the forehead. She barely responded. Next, Six poked her on her nose. It made a wet little suction sound from her leaky nostril. Still nothing. Nosebleed could have already been dead for all she was aware, and that would have been a shame. Though if Six was careful, Mono wouldn’t know whether she’d died on her own or with some… help. 

Six covered Nosebleed’s mouth with her hand, smearing blood across the lower half of her face, and leaned forward to take just a little nibble. She pulled the loose collar of Nosebleed’s shirt away from her shoulder and sank her teeth in.

_That_ got a response. Nosebleed bucked, but Six was putting all of her ten-year-old weight behind keeping her down and quiet. Fingers slid across the slick material of her raincoat, finding no purchase, and Nosebleed’s feet kicked out, sending old cups and cartons skittering away. Six shook her head, earning a whine as her teeth pulled at thin flesh.

Nosebleed’s hand groped across the vent floor until it wrapped around a handle. She brought the broken spoon up with no real clue how or where to aim, but managed to smack Six upside the head. It wasn’t a solid strike, but it was enough to unbalance Six and topple her from her perch.

Nosebleed scrambled away from Six, tripping herself up in her own bedding, until she’d backed herself into a corner. She had a bloody handprint smeared across her mouth, and her eyes were wide and wild. That just made Six want to rip into her even more, and it would be _very_ hard to pretend that wasn’t her fault when Mono came back.

“What are you doing?” Nosebleed said in that weak whisper of hers, a hand pressed to her shoulder.

Six was not a very good liar, contrary to the bizarre disconnect between herself and Mono’s view of her (he mostly did all the lying to himself for her). She had no clue how to answer, so didn’t. 

Nosebleed’s eyes flickered to the opening behind Six, and Six obligingly crawled aside. It was a tight fit, and as Nosebleed smushed her way past, Six darted her head forward to lick a bloody fingerprint off her cheek. Suddenly, Nosebleed was moving a lot faster.

Six followed along, nodding for Nosebleed to continue whenever she stopped to glare back at her, as though this was something they had both agreed upon.

Her mouth tasted like pennies.


	2. Chapter 2

Mono was crouched in a vent opening, staring into the office. The sounds of paper shuffling and grunts, beams squeaking under the strain of the doctor’s body, all horribly familiar to the girl. She swallowed and crept closer, trying to shake the feeling of big, crushing hands grabbing hold of her, yanking her up by a pigtail. The laughter and clacking of teeth.

She tapped Mono’s arm.

Mono yelped, which was immediately smothered under the girl’s hand. She shushed him with her other, then had to clench her teeth on her own cry as Six yanked her hair. The girl smacked back at Six, and got teeth in her hand for her effort. Now it was Mono’s turn to quiet her, and suddenly there were two people on top of the girl.

She had to be quiet, she knew. The doctor was right out there, and who knew what noise they’d already made wrestling right next to the grate. The girl forced herself to breathe through her nose, to not think about how she was being held down, how she was trapped, again. Don’t fight. Six -- there was something scary about her, and it made the girl want to fight, just like --

She woke up after what felt both like an hour and only a few seconds. Judging by the faces staring down at her, it was the latter. Passing out made everything feel fake and dreamlike, but they weren’t on her anymore, and the doctor hadn’t torn away the grate. They were still safe.

Six was sucking on her fingers, red with blood. Right. Safe.

When Mono looked over to her, she yanked her hand away from her mouth with a wet pop, smearing spit and blood along her raincoat. They shared some silent communication the girl wasn’t privy to, then he helped her sit up.

They crawled away from the grate, deeper into the vents. The doctor knew the girl was there, but he didn’t know about Mono and Six, she hoped.

“What is it?” Mono asked, immediately, pulling his bag free again. Taking it on and off over and over was mussing his already wild hair into a giant tangle.

The girl pulled her collar away from her shoulder, exposing the ring of teeth left by Six.

“Oh.”

Six scowled at the girl, and she scowled right back. The fact that she hadn’t even had to explain, and Mono just knew what had happened, told the girl enough about how Six was.

“Sorry about Six, she, uh… Let me talk to her.”

He dragged Six away, and though she wanted to listen, the girl didn’t want to piss off Six again. Vents carried sounds, though, and she couldn’t help but hear (while very pointedly pulling out her messed up braid and redoing it slowly and meticulously so it looked like she wasn’t paying attention). Six wasn’t saying anything, so far as she could tell.

“ _ Please _ … nice…. Don’t… I know…. Hungry… I  _ know _ … wait...”

The girl glared thoughtfully at the cobwebs in the corner of the vent, rubbing her aching shoulder. She’d tried offering Six food, but she hadn’t wanted it. That wasn’t  _ her _ fault. These two were bad news. The girl had more important things to worry about than whatever it was they were doing.

She had convinced herself to crawl back to her nest and let them find their own way out when they returned.

“Six is sorry. She’s not good with people.” At the girl’s flat look, Mono fumbled for more to say. “She -- she even bit me, when we first met, and look at us now! We’re best friends!”

Six’s head was tilted down, hiding her eyes behind a screen of dark hair and yellow hood. The girl supposed that did seem like contrition. When she tilted her head to get a better look, Six turned away and hid behind Mono. It made the girl realize just how young Six was, at least a few years younger than herself, and Mono couldn’t have been much older. That was something she could grow out of, so long as she had a chance to grow.

“The doctor does his rounds after dark,” the girl said quietly. Not quite accepting (she’d been  _ bitten _ ), but when the whole world was out to get you, it was better to make peace and focus on survival.

Mono nodded decisively. “We’ll go into his office, then.”

The girl realized, seeing his determined expression, that Mono made very quick decisions with very little information. He was going to get himself killed, and then Six would be by herself. The thought made the girl’s heart hurt particularly bad for some reason.

“I’ll come with you -- I’ve been in there.”

Mono’s gaze flickered to Six, but then he nodded more slowly. “Sure.”

**MONO**

Mono had no idea how Nosebleed knew when time passed, but she seemed content to sit and wait in absolute silence. Silence was familiar and safe. He watched her rub at her nose again, wiping away the remnants of a suspiciously Six-shaped handprint, then pointedly looked at Six. She looked back at him, not at Nosebleed. He nodded at her, and she reciprocated. Good.

Nosebleed dug around in her nest, coming up with a journal and a stub of a pencil.

“What’s that?” Mono asked, as she opened to a page half-way through and began to write.

“A journal,” she said. After several beats of silence, Nosebleed offered a little more information. “I’m afraid I’ll forget more things if I don’t write them down.”

“You forget stuff?"

Another swipe across her face, smearing more blood. Mono wondered if there was any relationship between the two things. “I think. I can’t remember what I... don’t remember,” she explained in the same tone that Mono had tried to explain the signal tower.

Mono wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but Nosebleed sighed, and continued on her own, pencil scratching at the page. “You help. It feels familiar.”

Six glared at Nosebleed and moved closer to Mono.

“Can I see your journal?” Mono didn’t know what he hoped to accomplish, but he knew how hard it was not knowing something about yourself. Nosebleed handed it over.

Six leaned in closer (even though Mono was pretty sure she couldn’t read), and together they scanned the pages.

Most pages were just pictures, smeary graphite drawings of handprints and lines of children and towering walls. Some pages were full of names beginning with L, or with Ls scattered throughout, as though she was trying to remember a name. Her own? A friend’s? Even Nosebleed didn’t seem to know.

They made it to the most recent page, which had the beginnings of children’s figures, mostly sticks right now. One was obviously Nosebleed, but there was another child about her size, and a third, smaller figure. Only Nosebleed had any definite shape in the picture, as though the others barely existed. They were holding hands.

Mono stared at the figures, then handed it back to Nosebleed so she could continue drawing.

“Where are the other kids?” Mono asked, after minutes of quiet focus from Nosebleed.

Nosebleed shrugged, staring down at the page, blood dripping onto the paper, pencil no longer moving. “Gone. I… there used to be more of us, but -- I’m the only one left, I think.”

As she disappeared into her own mind, Mono chewed the inside of his cheek. He’d failed others (he’d  _ hurt _ others). It was hard, enduring that on your own. His hand automatically found Six’s, and his other reached out to gently touch Nosebleed’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay,” he said, though he had no clue if that was true. But it was more likely with friends.

**SIX**

Six placed her other hand on top of Mono’s, trapping his between her two. He was making friends. He did that, sometimes. He liked making people feel better, or saving them. It was stupid, but Six accepted that about Mono. And she wasn’t supposed to eat his friends. That was usually pretty easy because who he didn’t know about couldn’t hurt him, and there were plenty of kids Mono had never met. But Nosebleed was here, being all nosebleed-y, being all… attention stealing-y. It made Six hungry _and_ upset for reasons she didn't quite understand, which she didn't like. Six was not supposed to be confusing to herself.

She could deal with both of those problems very, very easily.

“He should be gone, by now,” Nosebleed said, eyes wide like she had no clue what to do with Mono’s hand on her shoulder. “The doctor, I mean. His rounds --” she cut herself off and shoved her journal under her bedding, knocking Mono’s hand away in the process. “Let’s get going.”

Mono led the way, giving Six a chance to yank Nosebleed’s braid as Nosebleed tried to crawl after. Nosebleed yelped, but Six was already following Mono. That was how things should be.

They crowded around the vent again, but this time Mono and Six (not Nosebleed, who hung back) pushed loose the grate and gently lowered it the few inches to the ground. They climbed out, Mono helping Six, then Nosebleed.

Six prowled forward to the desk and sniffed the air, but only smelled Nosebleed’s coppery scent. She reached up to the desk and grabbed a piece of paper, yanking it down along with everything on top of it, ignoring the smothered cry of Nosebleed. Six tore a length free and rolled it up.

“What are you doing?” Nosebleed whispered, creeping up on Six.

She whipped around and shoved the paper up Nosebleed’s nose, ignoring her indignant squawk. “You smell!” she whispered right back.

“Six! Nosebleed! ” Mono hissed, before he slapped his hand to his paper bag where his mouth was.

Nosebleed held her own hand to her bloody nose, eyebrows turned up in blatant betrayal.

“Sorry, I just -- “

Even though she couldn’t see his face, Six could hear the embarrassed blush creeping up Mono’s cheeks.

“Find your stupid tower thing and let’s get out of here,” Nosebleed muttered, half-heartedly turning her attention to the fallen papers, like she knew what they were looking for. She didn't, because this was Six and Mono's adventure, not Nosebleed's. Six was pleased to see that she left the wad of paper Six had given her in her nose, though.

Six crept over to Mono under the guise of helping him. “Nosebleed,” she muttered.

“Not now, Six,” Mono snapped, not even raising his gaze from the papers on the floor.

Six pouted and scuffled some papers around, moving slowly away from Mono as though his sharp tone hadn’t hurt.  _ She _ thought the name was funny, still, and it wasn’t like they had something else to call Nosebleed, anyway.

She looked down at a folder she’d picked up. Words were scribbled on the front, but they meant nothing to Six. She plopped down on her butt and opened the folder. The first thing she noticed were pictures paperclipped to the top. She pulled the topmost picture free and squinted more carefully at it. A group of children, deliciously scared and scuffy, huddled close to each other. They were kids of all ages, and, lurking toward the edge like some shadowy protector (Six knew that stance, Mono really liked it), a familiar blond head with braids.

Six didn’t know what the rest of the files said, but she yanked them free, folded them messily, and tucked papers and pictures into her pockets.

"Did you find something?" Mono asked. Six's head snapped up before she could pretend to not have been startled, but then she shrugged noncommittally, showing him the empty folder.

That seemed to be enough for him. Six breathed a sigh of relief when his attention wandered. She patted her pocket as she watched Nosebleed shove papers around, probably looking for what Six had already found. That made her feel a little better.


	3. Chapter 3

The girl sighed as she yanked open another drawer and dove in, searching. The fact that she didn’t know what for made it difficult, but with three sets of eyes, they’d have to find  _ something _ before the doctor returned. Mono’s quiet gasp startled her from her task, and she looked over to where he’d found a black notebook. Small by the doctor’s standards, but unwieldy by theirs.

“We should leave,” he whispered, already retreating to the vent.

The girl looked around at the mess as Six followed him. The doctor knew the girl was here, lurking in the vents and walls like a rat, but he’d made no attempt to recapture her. She’d tried to give him no reason to want to.

“Come on!” Mono whisper-yelled, gesturing for her.

Unease settling in her stomach, the girl finally left the office. She could ignore that, though, because there was something else far less important but more upsetting to worry about right now.

“Nosebleed?” she whispered angrily as Mono led the way. Six snorted between them, which the girl didn’t appreciate. She yanked the blood-soaked paper out of her nose more viciously than what was smart, chucking the sodden wad at Six’s back, and old blood splashed on the metal floor. She snorted out more blood, thankful to have two nostrils free again.

The girl crashed into Six, who had frozen. She caught her dark, glittering eyes, and quickly backed away, smearing the blood on her knees and hem of her oversized shirt.

Mono was saying something, voice echoing as he moved on and they stayed still, and the girl had missed half of what he’d said already. “Sorry .... just a stupid nickname. It was mean.”

“That’s alright,” she said distractedly, more focused on Six than on him. Then when she realized she’d barely spoken, she cleared her throat and repeated it a little louder. “It’s fine. I don’t have any other name.”

Six returned her attention to Mono, crawling quickly to catch up. The girl was slower to move forward.

Back in the nest, she and Six huddled on either side of Mono, peering down at the black book. The girl held up a penlight to better illuminate the tiny script coating the pages, thankful for the person between her and Six. There was a large, black tower sketched in alongside diagrams of children. It looked pretty signal tower-y so far as the girl could tell. That was probably what caught Mono’s attention.

“I think this is his experimental notebook.” She pointed at a boy with part of his skull missing, exposing brain under a clear dome. Enough of him was left to identify, though. “I saw him taken away through the crack in my door.”

Mono hummed thoughtfully, but he didn’t share his thoughts, just turned the page.

The girl pointed again, almost excited, though it faltered as she recalled the specifics. “And her! She -- she was crying and being dragged.” She hadn’t remembered that until she saw the picture, of that face slack and blank, metal framing either side of her eyes. Unobtrusive, but a zoomed-in diagram of the metal showed a spike that had to disappear into her head.

The girl touched the blood smear under her nose. Was she in the book? Was something done to her, so she didn’t remember? So she was always light-headed and bloodied?

Mono began to turn the page. The girl jerked away as though burned. She didn’t want to know, though she should. She needed to, to fill in that gaping hole in her memory that more thoughts seemed to leak through every time she passed out.

The book closed with a snap, startling the girl. Mono’s worried gaze made her cheeks burn.

“It’s fine,” she muttered, pressing the back of her hand to her nose. “ _ I’m _ fine.”

The look Mono sent her told her how much he believed that.

**MONO**

Mono observed Nosebleed (he felt both more and less bad about the nickname, now that it had been aired) with what he hoped was concern and not suspicion. Because he was concerned, but, well, he was also a little suspicious, too. There was no telling what had been done to her (if anything, he reminded himself), much less if she actually had any relationship to the signal tower. He wanted to trust her, but what if she was… compromised. What if she unknowingly betrayed them?

He really, really wanted to keep looking through the book. Nosebleed’s pallid face tempered that a little, though. Mono sighed through his nose.

“Six and I should get going,” he said, holding up the notebook. “We need to get to the signal tower as soon as possible and stop this.”

Nosebleed nodded. Her nose dripped.  _ Dripdripdrip _ . Six was completely still beside Mono, and he didn’t have to look at her to know that her focus was entirely on that.

“I haven’t found a vent that leads outside yet, and I’ve been through them all,” Nosebleed said.

“Hey, Six, can you check if the coast is clear?” Mono asked, pointing down the original way they had come. Six’s attention snapped to him, and she scowled, but nodded. She crept away with the slow, sullen movements of a kid sent to her room when she still wanted to play.

Mono fumbled around the tattered cloth of Nosebleed’s nest, until he found a piece he could tear easily. Nosebleed watched in silence, brows a little furrowed. He rolled it into a sloppy little cylinder.

“Six, uh. She’s really sensitive to smell. I didn’t think about it before, but --”

Nosebleed interrupted with a snort, taking the cylinder and pushing it up her nose. “She said I stink.”

Mono winced. Six was not leaving the best of impressions. Which he  _ understood _ , really, because Six was built different from other kids, and she had an upbringing most didn't, and needs most didn’t, too. But soon, they would be out of here, and it wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

“Can I see your book?” Nosebleed asked as she reached for it. Mono realized she was talking louder, now, almost at a normal volume instead of that faint, weak whisper. He hoped it was because she was getting more comfortable, and not because Six had left.

He reflexively pulled the book a little closer. Trust. He needed to trust people, not just Six. “It’s… are you sure?”

Nosebleed nodded and gestured for him to hand it over. She had a look of determination he’d rarely seen in a child. Mono handed it to her.

Steeled, Nosebleed flipped slowly through the book, hand sometimes stroking a page as she muttered to herself. Mono watched her expressions flicker through the spectrum in silence. Confusion, sadness, acceptance, anger -- all came, went, came again. She turned another page. Her gaze immediately rose to him, brows furrowed.

“What?” Mono asked.

Nosebleed turned the book around without comment so he could see the page she’d been looking at. Her brown eyes peeked over the top edge.

Mono was staring at a drawing of himself. A little younger, but definitely him.

“So how much do  _ you _ remember?” Nosebleed asked dryly.

Mono barely heard her, gawking at the image, at the lines pointing things out on him as though he was just some diagram to pick apart and not a person. Sure, he didn’t really remember  _ much _ , but there wasn't a hard line where he did or didn't remember. Besides, he’d been doing so much with Six that any time before that felt hazy and fake, not worth considering. He certainly wasn’t forgetting things (he thought. How did you know if you forgot something? Suddenly Nosebleed’s confusion trying to explain her own memory problems made far too much sense).

“Woah,” Nosebleed said, suddenly, leaning in close. When had she moved? The book had fallen to the wayside. Her hands came up to grip his shoulders in a calloused, grounding hold. “It’s okay, Mono. Just breathe.”

He forced himself to breathe in time with Nosebleed. In. Out. In. Out. Mono felt as overwhelmed as he had when he’d first -- when his memories began, which was far too late to be normal. How had he never thought that weird? How could he trust himself, now? Every suspicion he'd cast on Nosebleed bounced back to Mono.

Nosebleed was still talking, and he focused on that. “It’s okay,” she repeated. “I’m probably in that book. Lots of kids are. And we’re surviving, you and me. Right?”

Mono nodded faintly. “Right,” he echoed, voice weak.

She kneaded his shoulders, which had hiked up tense and painful without him even realizing. “So it doesn’t mean  _ anything _ that we’re in there. That we can’t remember stuff. This doesn’t change who you are.”

This didn’t change him. He was still Mono. He still wanted to stop this madness. He still had Six, and now Nosebleed, who was keeping a surprisingly level head. Mono repeated the mantra in his mind as she continued to talk, the sound of her voice comforting even if he had trouble focusing on the actual words. This didn't change him. He sniffled, and Nosebleed offered him a bit of her bed to blow his nose on.

“Sorry,” he muttered, face burning. He’d been so composed for so long. It was embarrassing to fall so easily into old panics. Especially in front of someone who wasn’t Six, who didn’t know.

Nosebleed smiled easily, and Mono returned the gesture as best he could. “We’ll get to that signal tower of yours and save everyone, alright?”

The signal tower. Right. That was good to focus on. A goal, something he could  _ fix. _ People he and Six could save.

Wait --

“We?” he asked.

Nosebleed blinked in confusion, as though it was a foregone conclusion she was coming along. “Yeah. You’re not the only one missing memories,” she said, poking Mono in the forehead. “If I had any friends before, I don’t think they’re here anymore. I want to find them.”

Mono let out a sigh of unexpected relief. He would without hesitation storm the signal tower with just a ladle and Six, if that was what it took, but the concept became that tiny bit less intimidating with even one more person behind him.

He squeezed Nosebleed’s hand, hoping that conveyed how grateful he was that she’d join them. When they were all together and safely away from the hospital, he'd have to tell her more about himself. The parts that scared him or confused him. Maybe she had parts like those, too.

“Let’s go get Six.”

**SIX**

Six lay flat on the vent’s cool floor, fingers outstretched to run down the ribs of the grate in front of her, making metallic clacks. There wasn’t anyone out there. She wondered when she was allowed to go back.

She knew Mono hadn’t actually sent her away to scout. He just wanted her gone so he could talk to that snotty Nosebleed alone. Six wondered what they were talking about. Probably warning her about Six, which was no fun. Maybe having some sort of heart-to-heart, which --  _ gross _ . Six wrinkled her nose at the idea.

Rolling onto her back, Six pouted up at the ceiling. Mono was  _ her _ friend, and Nosebleed was just  ~~ food ~~ some stranger. They shouldn’t be having deep conversations, especially when Six couldn’t. She was a much better listener than talker, and didn’t that count for something?

Six gave a big stretch then sighed, flopping back down dramatically. She hated when she had to share Mono, at least right now. Usually it was fine, Six supposed. But Nosebleed was so much  _ like _ Mono, even with her stupid leaky brain. What if he liked her better? That made Six sit upright, eyes wide as she stared down the darkness of the vent. Was she actually  _ replaceable? _

No. Maybe? No.  _ No. _

Six was going to kill Nosebleed before she had a chance to find out.

So caught up in her worry, Six barely had a chance to process the quiet clank of the grate being set down before a thick hand reached in and wrapped around her. Six’s startled yelp echoed in the vents as she was yanked out into the open, first along the tile floor, then up, up into the air, upside down.

The doctor’s teeth clicked and tongue lolled like they were run by different minds. His eyes rolled up (down?) to see what he had caught, kicking and squirming in his grasp. Six scowled at him, fingernails digging into the pudgy flesh of his hand, dragging little furrows that did nothing to deter him.

He gave her a sharp shake, and the world spun. All the blood was rushing to Six’s head; tile, chairs, charts on the wall were flipped upside down and wrong. The doctor began to crawl along the ceiling, making everything worse.

Before she knew it (and only barely before she passed out from her position), Six was tossed unceremoniously onto a table. Straps were thrown across her and tightened, which normally would be a cause for concern, but Six was just thankful she wasn’t upside down anymore.

Once her blood had mostly returned to the right equilibrium in her body,  _ then  _ she was concerned. Six wanted to press her hands to her spinning head, but met only the resistance of the leather straps biting into her wrists. Ugh. She felt awful. How did Nosebleed survive with so much blood always oozing out of her?

Nosebleed. Mono.  _ Mono _ \-- he wouldn’t realize what had happened to her. She needed to get loose and find him, then they could leave this stupid hospital and stupid girls with braids and bloody noses. Six writhed against her bonds until she was exhausted, a quick endeavor that burned out all too fast, but made absolutely no progress. She doubted the leather had stretched even a little bit. The doctor definitely knew how to strap down children effectively.

She resigned herself to glaring at the ceiling. Mono would come. He always did, and when he freed Six, she was going to kill the doctor for letting Mono and Nosebleed hang out any longer than Six would have allowed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't expecting this to be so serious when I first started writing, so I changed the name from _Bloody Noses and Bitey Friends_ to _Hospital Discharge_.

The girl, constant nosebleed notwithstanding, felt better than she had in a long time. As Mono led the way, she tried not to smile  _ too  _ hard. D idn’t want Six yanking on her braids again, after all. She seemed very possessive of Mono.

But how could she not smile? Just being around Six and Mono, helping them, learning about them, was helping  _ her _ . Though she didn’t recall specifics, she had such strong impressions of other children, young like Six, determined as Mono. The girl wanted to save them, whoever they were and wherever they’d wound up.

Mono gasped and froze. The girl’s smile fell away quickly as she peeked over his shoulder. An open grate. No Six.

“The doctor,” she whispered with dread, immediately regretting ignoring her earlier sense of foreboding. “He must have taken her.”

“Do you know where?” Mono asked, eyes wide behind the safety of his paper bag.

The girl nodded firmly, no hesitation even as her insides clenched up just thinking about the operating room. That had to be where he’d taken her. That was where new patients always went, first, from what the girl had seen. Usually unconscious.

Every danger in the hospital paled in comparison, but she couldn’t let Six endure what she likely had, what Mono  _ definitely _ had. What so many other innocent kids had. Six didn’t deserve what the doctor would do. Nobody did, but Nosebleed felt a sudden, overwhelming protectiveness.  _ Six was just a little girl _ .

She slipped past Mono to crouch at the entrance. After a glance around, she darted to the chair she’d collapsed under before meeting the others. A few scattered cartons of milk and more jello (she never wanted to eat jelly again, if she got out of here) reminded her why she’d even been outside in the first place, but it seemed so long ago. So much had changed in that short time.

Mono bumped against her as he slid underneath.

“The vents are safer,” the girl whispered, pressing her mouth against the side of his bag so she could speak as quietly as possible, “but the halls are faster.” The fact that they  _ had _ to be fast went unspoken. No time for supplies or flashlights. No time for anything but quick action and luck.

  
  
  


**MONO**

  
  


Six was in danger.  _ Six was in danger _ . Mono’s mind had completely blanked at that realization, as it had every time Six and he got separated. That moment of terror, the sudden deluge of horrible thoughts, nightmarish images of her suffering or  _ dying _ , before he got his act together and actually  _ did  _ something about it.

It passed quicker this time, as Nosebleed sprung into action, dragging Mono along in her wake. He didn’t need to force himself to move, to pretend he wasn’t panicking, and somehow, that made it all easier to fight through. This was so new, having someone else to help him in these times. He wasn’t alone again, not like before Six, when he’d stumbled scared and confused through the world.

Mono caught Nosebleed’s hand as they huddled under the chairs, mindful of patients and professionals, mannequins and predators. It grounded him, brought him back to the problem at hand. She glanced down, but didn’t let go, only tightened their grip.

They slipped out of the shadows and crept down the hall. Nosebleed moved with purpose and familiarity, though Mono felt exposed by the lack of flashlight or cover.

As all children learned, they moved stealthily, and Nosebleed had an unerring sense of safe distances to not trigger the mannequins. Whenever Mono strayed too close, she gave him a sharp yank, steering him through a winding path between slumped figures and limbs that sometimes cut through rooms instead of halls. It was nerve-wracking but surprisingly effective. Nosebleed really had been here a very long time, he suspected.

Mono had no clue how long it would have taken through vents, but soon they stood before the double doors of the operating room. The windows and gap between the doors glowed with a sickly green light, and a shadow moved around within it.

He looked at Nosebleed, and wished he could at least mouth the name Six. They had to hurry. Before _he lost her_.

As though sensing his desire, she pointed at a vent in the wall, right near the floor, that also overflowed with green light. They crouched down beside it, and Nosebleed held the grate up up as Mono crawled through, then followed after, closing it silently behind her.

The operating room was crowded with abandoned mannequins, half-finished surgeries with rusty, stained tools spilling out of them. The doctor loomed like a heavy, dark cloud at the center, a surgical light tilted at an angle and shining down on a small, yellow-clad figure.

Mono lurched forward, halted only by Nosebleed’s hand on his arm. They’ve not been noticed yet, and he was ready to blow that on a whim. He swallowed and nodded at Nosebleed. He couldn't trust himself, right now. He'd follow her lead.

They slipped along the perimeter, behind a mannequin slumped in a wheelchair, and crouched to plan.

**SIX**

Six froze up. The doctor had left her after strapping her in, then come back to carefully pick at his tools. He was taking his sweet time, and the fear and confusion of being snatched had given away to a dread Six was going to ignore and anger. Until she’d breathed in and scented old, dried blood.

Nosebleed. Six began to writhe again, glaring across the room as though she’d see a blond head when she couldn’t even see the floor. No, she should calm down. If Nosebleed was here, Mono was too. Six smiled. She knew he’d come for her.

The doctor moved the lamp, shining it right into Six’s eyes. She hissed and tried to block it with her hand like when Mono did that, forgetting she was bound. Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut. The light burned brightly through her eyelids, still, and she twisted her head away.

If Mono was going to help her, he better do it fast, because the doctor was examining his tools, and from what little Six could make out through the glare, all of them looked dull and painful. Six didn’t know if she had the energy to save herself. She hadn’t eaten for too long, and stupid Mono didn’t want her to eat stupid Nosebleed.

Six might have been a little grumpy, right now, and whatever the doctor was about to do was putting her on edge.

He reached down with a long, thin tool in hand, and slipped whatever it was into Six’s pocket, pulling out the pictures and papers she’d folded up. That gross fat tongue clicked in disappointment as she howled and spit for him to give those  _ back _ .

“Good children don’t steal,” he said, voice thick and bubbling out like a clogged up toilet. Six glared at him, because she was not a good child at all. Good children sat in their beds and played with their toys and waited to be chopped up into pies. Six survived, and, if Mono didn’t come help her  _ right now,  _ she’d show this adult exactly how she did that.

The doctor set the stolen papers delicately on a tray, then switched a more threatening instrument: a scalpel.

A mannequin moved -- no, it fell over, clattering out of its wheelchair and sprawling across the floor. Six heard the pitterpatter of children’s feet, running away, making her want to give chase. The doctor rolled his head on his neck, saw what she couldn’t, and scrambled after, making dust fall from the ceiling with his mighty, frenetic movements. The doors to the operating room swung wildly, before slowly returning to absolute, silent stillness.

Mono would be the only one brave (or stupid) enough to offer himself as bait. So that meant he’d trusted Nosebleed to save Six. That was great. Six had no doubt Nosebleed would help her, and Six could eat without Mono any the wiser. Then she’d go rescue  _ him _ , and they could leave, just the two of them forever after.

Pleased with this plan (and Mono said she never seemed to think through anything), Six relaxed, waiting for Nosebleed.

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t make a single sound of surprise or disappointment, when Mono climbed up on the table. Did he use Nosebleed as bait? Hah! Six  _ knew _ he didn’t like her as much as Six.

She smiled up at Mono, and he lifted his bag just enough so she could see him smiling back, before he set to work fighting the large, stiff leather straps. They refused to budge easily, but Mono was determined, eventually abandoning the task to go rifle through the doctor’s tools.

He threw a pair of scissors onto the table, almost hitting Six with them. She scowled until he apologized, then got to work sawing away with the cumbersome scissors.

As soon as he was through the first strap, which snapped with such force that Mono fell back on his butt and the scissors flew right off the table, Six sat up and shoved at the one across her legs. Mono rushed in to help, and together they managed to leverage it up just enough for her to slip free, but not without some scrapes.

Mono scrambled to the floor, and gestured for her to follow. Six hesitated, before jumping over to the table the doctor had set his tray on. She  _ liked _ having something of Nosebleed’s that Nosebleed wanted. Those papers were hers, now, to do with (burn) what she pleased.

He whispered for her to come, so Six shoved them messily back into her pockets and climbed down after him. She slipped her hand into his, letting Mono take the lead, tugging her along through the vent and into the hall.

Nosebleed crashed into Mono, who fell back into Six, who fell to the floor, taking them both with her. Judging by their cries, this was not part of the plan.

Six bounced up almost immediately. Dark shapes moved further down the hall. Not the doctor, but still dangerous. And Nosebleed had led them right to Mono. She caught Mono under his elbow and pulled him up, next. Nosebleed could help herself up.

When she didn’t, Mono showed far more concern, shaking off Six who was tugging on his sleeve for them to hurry up.

“What’s this?” Nosebleed asked, shaking hands holding a crumpled up -- oh. Six patted her pockets. They felt less full than before.

“ _ What is this _ ?” Nosebleed repeated, louder and shriller, as though Six didn’t hear her the first time.

Six pointed frantically at the mannequins lumbering toward them, glaring at Nosebleed. Now wasn’t the time to be making noise, the idiot.

Mono’s head turned between them, before he shook off Six’s hand and knelt beside Nosebleed. He muttered something to her, then helped her up. His hand fell easily to Nosebleed’s, and Six’s fingernails bit into her palm.

When  _ Six _ didn’t move this time, Mono grabbed her around the wrist, tugging her along too.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At some point I realized these are just the TAM characters but younger and moodier.

They were back in the vents, again, mannequins clattering around behind them, their noises slowly dying as they returned to stasis. Mono kept them all moving, kept them going until following chalk arrows and notes, he led them back to the nest. The girl was having trouble breathing, completely unrelated to the sodden fabric clogging up her nose. She ripped it out again, hating the swollen feel of it.

The girl plopped down and immediately began to search for her penlight, tears and blood drops making the process messy and difficult. The light clicked on, and she flattened the photograph on the floor. She’d seen it right.

There _she_ was. There was Wilbur, who broke his nose tripping on a brick, and still had a band-aid slapped across it. Jackie, who wouldn’t look forward and instead glared defiantly at the adults looming out of view. Button, William, Alice… And in the front, small and scared, Noddy, with her dark tangle of hair. 

She tried to breathe, but her throat was too tight, too clogged up with tears. She knew them all, and, though the specifics were still too spotty, she had cared about them. Blood spotted the photo along with tears.

“WHY DID YOU HAVE THIS!” the girl screamed at Six, startling both her and Mono.

Mono leaned forward to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but the girl didn’t want to be comforted. She wanted answers. “We don’t know if this was --”

She shook Mono off and shoved the picture in Six’s face. “The doctor said -- he said you _stole_ it from him. You had it since the office, didn’t you?”

Six sniffled dismissively and turned her head away, eyes closed as though she could make the girl disappear if she just ignored her.

“Six?” Mono asked, and Six opened one eye. “Did you steal this?”

She gave a short, begrudging nod. Mono inserted himself between the two girls, holding them each out at arm’s length.

“Did you know it was hers?”

Six shook her head.

“She knew! She did! I’m in the damn picture!” The girl brandished the photograph at Mono, now. “What else do you have, you little rat!”

Six lunged, but the girl was older, taller and ready to fight. Mono wasn’t ready for anything, and he yelped as he was caught between them, teeth and nails snapping and grappling, body parts banging into the walls of the vent and adding echoing bangs to the cacophony of shouting. The girl got her fingers into Six’s pockets, pulling out wads of paper, then kicked and kicked, until Six had been shoved into the corner like a hissing, rabid cat.

“Guys! GUYS!” Mono yelled, the only warning before he threw a cloth over the girl and, from her indignant squawk, Six.

Mono gulped down air. “CALM DOWN!”

The girl slumped down, glaring at the weave of the fabric until Mono carefully pulled it from her face. He was nursing one eye. “Are you calm?”

She nodded, then sat up, meanly pleased to see Six still covered. As Mono went to deal with Six, the girl gathered up the papers and began to uncrumple them.

Each page had a name. Some, she’d recognized from the photo. Others, she didn’t, and some that should have been there weren’t. Worst, several had large, red letters spelling out DECEASED stamped on them.

“Were these all of them?” the girl demanded. Six glared at her from behind cloth bunched in her hands.

“Six, please…”

Six breathed out long and slow from her nose, then nodded. The girl stared, waiting for any tick of her lying again, but Six just looked upset that Mono was angry at her. Now that she’d gotten her adrenaline out, the girl felt suddenly, deeply guilty. Had they never fought before? She’d not wanted to get between the two, she had just wanted answers, and she’d been so upset…

“I’m sorry,” the girl choked out. .“I… I didn’t mean…” She snatched up the photograph and crawled away into the maze of ductwork, to a deeper, more solitary place. She needed some space.

  
  
  


**MONO**

  
  
  


Mono rubbed his throbbing eye as he kept a hand on Six’s shoulder so she didn’t follow Nosebleed. Whoever had hit him had hit him _hard._ It'd probably bruise.

He wanted to make sure Nosebleed was fine, but Six was more important right now. Mono didn’t think she’d ever gotten into a fight with another child that wasn’t Hunger-related. And now, her face was scrunched up as frustrated tears leaked free. 

“I’m sorry, Six,” he said, pulling up part of the sheet he’d tossed onto her to wipe at her eyes. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She made a strangled little noise and hunched further into her hood.

Mono pressed on. “I know it’s tough right now. Everyone’s really upset. I don’t think Nosebleed meant to be so mean to you.”

Six wiggled her hand until it was freed of the sheet and poked Mono hard in the shoulder. At his look of confusion, she did it again. That was something he’d noticed about her, over their time together. Six barely spoke normally, but she became basically mute when scared or upset.

“Me?” he asked. She nodded. “I was mean to you?” Another nod, more fervent.

Mono reflected back on the night. He guessed he had been more snippy than usual. Tonight had been… a lot, though.

“I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that. You’ve been doing great, you know?”

Six perked up, already starting to preen under the incoming compliments.

“Yeah, I know all that blood must be bothering you, but you’ve held off really well! And you didn’t seem at all scared when the doctor had you. I bet you could have gotten yourself free if you’d needed.”

Six gave him a smug smile, ruined a little by her red eyes and runny nose, but Mono relaxed immediately. That, he was sure, meant he was forgiven. He pulled her into a hug, squeezing as tight as he could.

“You’re such a great friend, Six,” he mumbled, realizing just how easy he could have lost her if she’d decided not to accept his apology.

Six patted him awkwardly on the back.

Eventually, Mono pulled away. “I have to go talk to her,” he said, eyes glued onto Six’s face to read her response. Her expression tightened, but she simply slumped back against the wall with a huff and crossed her arms.

“Thanks, Six.” Mono gave her another smile to show how much he appreciated her letting him do this, then left to find Nosebleed.

Mono only knew a few paths through the vents, but luckily Nosebleed tended to leave her own trail of bloody breadcrumbs for him to follow.

“Go away,” she muttered before he’d even seen her. Mono ignored the order and crawled on, rounding the corner until her bright blond head came into view. Nosebleed was resting against the vent wall. She had curled up her legs, arms wrapped loosely, numbly around her knees. The photograph lay by her side. “I said _go away_ ,” she snapped, body tensing up. “Don’t you have to go play nice with that monster of yours?”

Mono’s heart rate jumped at the word monster, but he swallowed down his instinctive terror that she knew about Six’s hunger. There was no way. Nosebleed didn’t know, and besides, Mono didn’t like that tone when talking about _his_ friend. He flushed. “Six isn’t a monster! She’s just a kid. She-- she’s just _different_ , but that’s not bad, okay? Six wants to help people, too.”

They glared at one another for a beat longer, then all the tension melted from Nosebleed, as though she’d been hit with a deep, soul-crushing exhaustion. She sighed and knocked her head against the wall, as though looking up to a heaven that didn’t exist.

“I didn’t hurt her, did I?”

“Nah,” Mono said, relaxing too now that he saw a fight wasn’t going to happen (again). They spent so long fighting adults, he didn’t want to fight with his friends, too. “Six is made of sterner stuff.” He mimicked Nosebleed’s pose across from her, their feet crossing into each other’s space, knees almost touching. “Are you okay?”

“I think I hit you, too,” she said instead of answering, dropping her gaze once more to him and gesturing toward his injured eye. There were imprints of her knees on her forehead, and blood all over her legs. Had Mono woken her up from one of her fainting spells? How terrifying it must be to constantly be in danger of passing out, especially when being hunted.

He gave her what he hoped was an easy grin, even though his face did still smart, and he still felt a lingering zing of anxiety at their earlier sharp words. “Not the first time I’ve been knocked around. It’s fine.”

Nosebleed clenched her hands into fists, then let them relax.

“I shouldn’t have acted like that. Six is just a little kid, but…. Those kids -- As soon as I saw their faces, I got hit with so many feelings. I -- I think I was supposed to protect them, and I just forgot them instead…” She trailed off, wiping at an errant tear. Mono stayed silent, letting Nosebleed puzzle through her feelings. “I was angry at Six for trying to hide them from me, but… I think I was angry at myself, too. I failed, you know? And I miss them. I don't even know them, but I miss them.”

Mono nodded slowly. “Before Six, uh… I guess around when I started remembering stuff, I was exploring and came across a mannequin -- not one of the moving ones, just a regular one. I was sure she had to look like someone I knew. It just felt like someone was missing who should be there. And every little thing that was wrong about it, that I thought shouldn’t be there, made me angry. Even the mannequin’s eye color. I don’t remember what the color was supposed to be, or who I thought she was to me, but…. It’s hard, I know.”

Nosebleed was staring at him, brows furrowed in thought. “Can I still come with you guys? Will Six be okay with that?”

Mono glanced down the vents, as though he could see Six through the layers of cement and dirt and metal. Six wouldn’t really be _okay_ with it, per se, but Mono felt he could make the argument for Nosebleed. And Six would grow to like her, he was sure.

  
  
  


**SIX**

  
  
  


Tearing up the rest of the papers that Nosebleed had left made Six feel better. She left the other pictures, though, not wanting to get yelled at by Mono again. Just thinking about that soured her already dark mood. Nosebleed ruined everything, and now she’d taken Mono away when _Six_ needed him.

She rolled around on the floor, tangled up in the sheet, kicking out at the walls since she couldn’t kick at Nosebleed and releasing quiet, angry screams. _Stupid Nosebleed! Stupid Mono!_ _Stupid pictures! Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

Soon, Six exhausted herself and sprawled across the floor. Her stomach gave a tiny, threatening growl. She patted it and let her mind wander to thoughts of food.

Her thoughts eventually circled back to Mono, especially since he still wasn’t back. Nosebleed better not have said anything to make him angry at Six. 

Or worse, want to leave her.

Six glared at the seam of metal welded to metal above her head. She hated how she was all the sudden so worried about what Mono thought, and what Mono did. He wasn’t supposed to be doing all this weird stuff like running off with another girl or snapping at Six for her perfectly legitimate and justifiable actions. She didn’t like thinking Mono _could_ leave her, but now that seemed to be all her mind was capable of focusing on.

Replaceable, that was what she’d thought before. When he’d come to save her, Six had decided that wasn’t possible, but now he’d chosen to go to Nosebleed. He’d _chosen_ to leave Six behind.

Six sat up. She’d be the best friend Mono knew, she decided. She’d listen to what he wanted, do what he said, play nice with others, not eat who he told her not to eat…. maybe. Then, if he left her, he’d realize how miserable he was without her, and come crawling back, lesson learned. She nodded decisively to herself. Yes. She’d prove to Mono that she was above and beyond Nosebleed as a friend. Above anyone else, ever.

Feeling better about this course of action, Six gathered up the rest of the pictures and found Nosebleed’s journal. She shoved them sloppily between the pages and closed the elastic band around it once more.

When they returned, both a little teary-eyed (Six would give Nosebleed something to cry about for making Mono sad -- no, no. She was being _good_ ), Six shoved the journal at Nosebleed before the other girl could panic about her holding it. There. A peace offering, so Mono knew Six wasn’t holding a grudge.

Nosebleed immediately opened it to check everything was safe. The pictures fell out, and she contemplated them a long, long moment before adding the one she’d taken to the pile and tucking them all away again with a weak, watery thanks to Six.

Mono smiled at her, and Six smiled back, all teeth.


	6. Chapter 6

Six had… done something nice. The girl wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Happy, she supposed, but also bad. She’d been so mean to Six, who was weird, yes, but who had also helped her figure out a few more pieces of the puzzle that was her own mind. Unintentionally, but the girl would have had  _ nothing  _ if Six hadn’t stolen those. She looked down at the pictures peeking out from between the pages of her journal, marveling at how much had changed and how quickly once Six and Mono had come into her life.

“We need to get going,” Mono said to Six, drawing the girl’s attention back to them. “The sooner we stop the signal, the sooner kids stop hurting.” He glanced over at her as he said that, and she firmed her mouth in resolution. She would find the others. She would save them.

“If the doctor’s starting to grab kids out of vents, it’s not safe to stay here, anyway. If we can get to the first floor, I bet there’s some way out.”

“Right,” Mono said decisively. He grabbed Six’s hand as the girl searched around for the length of cord she’d braided from sheets, something she'd found useful to have on hand when climbing in and out of high vents or vertical shafts.

She wrapped her journal in it, then slung it over her shoulder before slotting her penlight’s clip into one of the braids. “Follow me.”

The girl led them to the big problem with getting to the first floor. A giant fan spun idly in the gaping pit of the vent, blowing stale, warm air up at their faces as they crowded close and peered down.

“Elevators?” Mono asked hopefully.

The girl shook her head. “I tried that once, and the doctor cut the line.” She lapsed into silence, trying not to relive the terrifying plunging sensation as her feet left the ground as sparks flew and metal screamed. It had been a frantic rush to get the hatch in the roof open as the elevator plunged far further than the three floors it should have. The girl had flung herself blindly through one of the doorways that were broken and forever open, and still had faint scars all down her forearms from her skidding landing across broken glass and needles from a spilled tray.

“All the windows are barred, too,” she continued, forcing herself back to the here and now. “And the stairs are… we can’t use the stairs.” She shuddered, just thinking on what lurked in there.

“Okay,” Mono said, not pushing that last one. “So we just need to stop the blade, right? Any ideas?”

The girl shrugged. Six just stared down into the abyss beyond the gentle whumwhumwhum of the turning blades.

  
  


**MONO**

  
  
  


Mono tapped the edge of the vent, wracking his brain. He didn’t really know anything about vents, but electricity -- there had to be a control panel, or wires powering the fan. They just had to find that.

“Is there a control room somewhere?” he asked Nosebleed. She scrunched up her face in thought. “Someplace with a bunch of switches or buttons?”

“I might know something. I don’t know if it’s what you want, but…”

“We can check it out. C’mon, Six.”

He caught Six’s elbow, tugging her away from the ledge and after Nosebleed, who was crawling with purpose down a new path. He was struck again by how long she must have been here. Were her friends even alive, anymore? Were they even  _ people _ , even if they were?

No, he shouldn’t think about that. He was getting that creeping feeling in his stomach he’d come to identify as  _ that problem _ just teasing at the idea they might be too far gone. But his brain had caught on it, and it was like telling himself to not think about a pink elephant. All he could see was Nosebleed crying, because all her friends, the kids she cared  _ so much _ about were twisted up or dead. Surely it didn’t actually mean anything, this time, though? They were somewhere far away, and Nosebleed seemed sure they were alive. Mono couldn't do any harm just thinking about that. Right?

Six tugged at him, before he could collide with Nosebleed, and quirked an eyebrow when he glanced back. He mimed feeling hunger like she did, and her expression brightened, until Mono glared and she huffed. It wasn’t something he liked, much less relished, like Six.

Nosebleed pressed her face to the grate of the vent, and Mono squished in beside her.  _ Don’t think about her crying. Don’t think about her crying. _ He felt the ebb of that niggle inside, and took that as a good sign.

The room they were staring into was so vast the corners disappeared into shadow. Mannequins loomed in the darkness, their hospital gowns drifting gently, giving the illusion of movement.

She pointed further into the room, where Mono could almost make out the faint outline of a door with a glowing rectangular window set in it. “I’ve only been in there once,” she whispered, moving closer so Mono could hear through his bag. “But it had a panel on the wall with these big switches and lights and labels…”

“A breaker box,” Mono guessed.

“I have no idea what that is. Is that good?”

Mono pulled back from the grate so they could strategize. “Yeah, that’s exactly what we need.”

Nosebleed looked so relieved, so tentatively hopeful that she might make it out, that Mono wished he could just gouge out his eyes like so many others had done. His stupid brain kept seeing her happy, and had to think  _ but what if _ ….

He’d been doing really well not thinking bad thoughts. Distracted by the steady creep toward the signal tower, by the excitement of a new friend and danger that he felt capable of handling with her, Mono had thought he was safe.

He took a breath to steady himself, because it didn’t  _ mean _ anything that he felt this way. They were just thoughts, and he was just a boy, and Nosebleed’s friends were probably dead before he even knew they existed. That wouldn’t be his fault, then.

“Do you have enough of that to get us down?” he asked, focusing on the problem at hand and pointing at Nosebleed’s braided sheets.

She unwound them, then guesstimated the distance to the floor.

“Down, yeah. I don’t know about up. I think it might be too short.”

“There are chairs out there we can push,” Mono decided, then began outlining a plan to get to the circuit breakers.

As soon as they felt confident in the plan, Nosebleed tied her rope between the bars of the grate, and let the other end fall down. It hung too high, as she’d suspected.

Mono climbed down first, then dropped to the ground. Nosebleed came after, and he caught her just as she landed, keeping her steady. He gave a thumbs up to Six, who just sulked at being left out of the fun for now. Normally Mono wouldn't leave her, but they needed someone to open the vent cover when they came back, and, though he'd never tell Six this, it was safer up there than down here. Mono couldn't let her get captured again.

The penlight clicked on, painting a path toward the door. They clasped hands, Nosebleed in the lead as Mono manned the light.

This time, there was no way to completely dodge the mannequins. They just had to be judicious with their light and fast on their feet as Nosebleed picked the least dangerous, most circuitous route. But every time that clickclackclatter picked up, Mono’s heart jumped, and he felt Nosebleed’s fingers squeeze tighter around his.

They arrived at the door and Nosebleed pushed. It didn’t budge. She jumped up and just barely caught the door handle, which wouldn't turn, and dropped back down with a curse. “They locked it!”

Mono waved the light wildly back and forth across the mannequins. They used every second of darkness to inch closer, though, slowly tightening a noose of a circle around them.

“Is there a vent?” he whispered back. “Or a chair -- or --”

“I’ll toss you up,” Nosebleed decided. “The window’s broken.” Mono took a precious moment to glance behind him, where she was already crouching, fingers laced in front of her. He could see there wasn’t anything else available.

“But the mannequins --”

“I don’t know what I’m looking for. Now come on, we don’t have  _ time. _ ”

“I--”

“Do you want to get Six out of here or not?” Nosebleed snapped, grabbing the edge of Mono’s coat to drag him closer. He almost dropped the penlight in surprise.

“I’ll open it from the inside,” Mono promised, just before she hefted him up. His hands caught on the edge of the window, remnants of glass cutting slivers into his fingers. The pain just made him grip harder, refusing to waste this opportunity as Nosebleed snatched up the penlight to wield against the mannequins.

He climbed inside and dropped down, bloody hands slipping on the handle before he could catch the lock.

Mono fell onto the ground with a pained grunt, then shot to his feet. He needed a chair or bucket or --

His entire body locked up as he realized what was in the room.

TVs. Rows and rows of them, all glowing with life.

  
  
  
  


**SIX**

  
  
  


Something was wrong. The light beam from the pen was still bouncing wildly around, but Six had seen a shadow disappear into the window. She squinted into the darkness, trying to puzzle what was going on. The mannequins were all active now, all jerking and stumbling toward the door. Toward where Mono was.

Nosebleed had  _ one job _ , and she was failing it miserably. As she climbed down the rope to fix this problem, Six hoped fervently that the mannequins got her by her stupid braids. Six had no illusions about what that would mean for Nosebleed, but sympathy was in short supply, especially if Mono was in danger.

Luckily for Six, the mannequins were all being drawn toward the door, so she went relatively unnoticed. Unluckily, she also needed to be at the door.

Six ran along the perimeter of the room, looking for anything that might help her. A way into the ceiling, or a gap between mannequins, or a light switch by another, darkened doorway.

She paused and retraced her steps, looking up at the light switch. A scream cut through the air. That wasn’t Mono’s scream, which Six could recognize anywhere. Nosebleed, then. She glanced over her shoulder. The light was now shining across the ground, catching only a few mannequins in its beam.

Six shifted from foot to foot. It would be so easy to just let them have Nosebleed. If Mono’s safety wasn’t a part of this, Six would have already left her. But it was, and he was over there, too. That decided it.

Six dragged a plastic chair over to the switch and climbed up. She then had to stand on her tiptoes to actually reach the switch, stretching her fingers out, out, and there!

Light flooded the room. The sounds of mannequin joints and limbs stopped instantaneously, replaced by the weak, breathy cries of Nosebleed.

Six hopped down from the chair and sauntered over to the door. Mono was definitely inside, and as she got closer, she could scent blood. With Nosebleed there, it was safe to assume it was hers, though.

Nosebleed hung upside down from the mannequins' grips. Several with shattered porcelain fingers revealing the wire armature had left slashes in her gown, and the fabric bloomed with new blood. She was heaving and writhing pathetically, face ashen as more blood dripped up her side where another had caught her thigh with its hook. All of her weight seemed to be hanging on that, like the chunks of meat hanging in the Maw’s kitchen.

Six swallowed. Focus. She needed to get to Mono, and she needed Nosebleed to do that. Fearlessly, she snatched up the penlight and climbed up the offending mannequin. Inching down its arm, Six arrived at the wrist joint, where she began to wail on the exposed ball and socket, until something cracked, and Nosebleed fell along with the hook.

She screamed when she hit the floor, hands flying to the hook. So loud. Six had no idea how Nosebleed had survived this long, bleeding and screaming all over the place.

Six hopped down from the mannequin, and gave a small, startled cry of her own as it toppled over and shattered. Not nearly as bad as Nosebleed’s, though, she assured herself, face a little red.

She knelt down beside Nosebleed and grabbed the hook. It hadn’t gone through her leg, simply caught the flesh in the hook's barb. They looked at each other dead in the eye before Nosebleed nodded, teeth grit, face a shiny mess of sweat and blood.

Six yanked it out, and Nosebleed let out muffled shrieks as she arched up in pain, before slapping her hands over the gash along her thin leg. As she curled in on herself and hissed air through her teeth, Six wandered off to find something to wrap the wound with.

She came back with some torn up hospital gown, the least dirty she could find (see, Mono, she was  _ trying _ ), and tied it tight around Nosebleed’s leg. She pulled Nosebleed to her feet, letting the taller girl put most of her weight on Six.

“Mono’s in there,” Nosebleed muttered through deep breaths, pointing at the window. Her words came out staccato and harsh as she fought back the pain. “The door was locked. He was going to open it from the inside. I don’t know what happened to him.”

They contemplated the door and the silence that lay beyond it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> everyone gets their big damn hero moments

Her legs were wobbly, but functional. The girl could work with that. She winced as she grabbed Six’s hand and pulled her over to the door, gingerly lowering herself to one knee.

Six stared at her hand, now covered in the girl’s blood, then to her crouched beneath the door knob. She gave a slow leisurely lick as she approached. The girl chose to ignore that, even with Six looking right into her eyes. There were bigger problems at hand.

Six put her foot in her palms and hoisted herself up.

They both fell over as the girl’s shaky leg gave out. She curled up in stomach-roiling pain, the world blacking out around her. Her first thought was the lights were fading, the mannequins would begin moving again -- but no, it was her own brain. It was fine. Or as fine as things could be, right now.

She was dragged from her panic by the agonized screeching of a chair being dragged across the room, around the still figures. The girl forced herself upright again, swallowing the sour taste in her throat, fighting through the throb growing in her head as more blood fell down her face to mingle with old smears. Six pushed the chair right over her collapsed form, and clambered up to the window.

The girl dragged herself slowly after Six, who offered no hand to help. Or at least, that was what it had seemed, until Six peeked out from inside the window, and held her hand out for the girl.

She was surprisingly strong for her size, hefting the girl over the ledge. Small bits of glass cut through her belly, leaving thin gashes that oozed. They toppled into the room, right beside Mono. They untangled their limbs, the girl biting back cries of pain as Six accidentally put all her weight on her injured leg. They stood, the girl leaning heavily on Six, and looked at Mono.

He... he wasn’t doing anything. He was just staring, still as a statue, head tilted back and paper bag awash with the light of TV sets. Six stepped toward him, sending the girl to the floor again with the sudden movement.

Six grabbed his hand, yanking it to get his attention. Nothing changed.

“Mono?” the girl asked, pushing herself to her feet. Six glared at her, as though this was her fault. It… wasn’t, was it? She had known about the TVs, but how could she have known about Mono’s reaction to them? What _was_ this reaction, anyway? What had been done to him?

She limped around him, waving her hands in front of his eyes, shaking his arms, trying with all her might to just get him to _move_. He swayed but no matter how she tried to turn his attention, his face remained turned toward the screens.

Six snorted.

“Well, _you_ aren’t doing anything,” the girl snapped in frustration, even though she could see the tight lines of worry around Six’s mouth. “The TVs. Can we… can we turn them off?”

Six scanned them, then wandered over under the table the TVs sat on. The girl followed, more slowly.

Something moved across the screens, filling one, then another with whiteness before disappearing. Some were broken, showing only static, but others showed sections of the hospital. Another movement caught her attention, in a room she recognized, with a door with a broken window at the end. Teeth like tombstones, grungy hospital whites. Terror seized her.

“The doctor! He’s coming!”

Outside of the room, the lights went dark. Mannequins began to move, some knocked and thrown by the doctor from the sounds of things, others walking with jerking, unsteady steps.

Six darted out from under the table again, agitation in every line of her body, just as the doctor’s great bulk hit the door. She ran to Mono and yanked frantically. The girl bolted to help, adrenaline pushing down the pain for now.

Together, they got him to stumble a step, another. The door rattled again.

“Mono, _please_ ,” the girl cried out as Six whined. They tugged harder.

Mono caught himself before he fell, and his eyes cleared. He looked around in blatant confusion, as though he’d forgotten where he was.

“What happened to you?” he asked, taking in the girl’s excessive bloodiness.

Both girls relaxed immediately, until the doctor hit the door, and all three children flinched. Mono whirled around, unsteady on his feet, disorientation in every movement. The girl was used to that feeling. He just needed to survive long enough for it to pass.

“I’ll explain later. We need to get out of here.” The girl turned around, scouring for a vent or crack or hole -- anything they could slip through. The room swam in the aquarium glow of TVs, filling the corners with darkness. Six scuttled off, circling the perimeter, her bright yellow brushing against deeper shadows as the girl scanned the ceiling and upper walls.

“But the switch. We can still turn off the fan.” Mono took a step toward the breaker box.

“And the doctor breaks in while we do that, then we die, and it doesn’t matter if the fan’s on or not.”

Mono’s silence radiated sullenness, even as he began scouring the room at child-height with her. The girl didn’t care, right now. Her leg hurt. Her stomach hurt. Her head hurt. She wanted to curl up and sleep for days.

They reconvened in the center of the room, huddled close, having found no way out. The vent was in the middle of the ceiling, and the floor was clear of everything but a pile of adult’s clothing. The doorframe buckled as dust tumbled from the ceiling. The doctor’s great, roving eye burned into the girl through the broken window. She grabbed Mono’s hand in one of her own, and Six’s in the other, placing herself in front of both of them.

There was no use hiding. No way to run. She felt like she'd been in this position before, with different children. With Noddy. She had failed then, and she'd likely fail now, but she couldn't accept that, not while Six and Mono hid behind her.

The girl straightened her spine, waiting for the doctor to break down the door.

  
  


**MONO**

  
  


Nosebleed positioned herself in front of him and Six. She was always _doing that_ , he realized. Putting herself in danger, with arguments that made sense for why it had to be her, shooting down his every objection. But now, there was no time to argue. She just did it, and he let her. He was used to being the one doing stupid things like that. Is this how Six felt when Mono threw himself in front of her, even though she could take care of herself? This exasperation and fondness and worry and fear and shame? No, probably not shame. That was all Mono. He’d thought such horrible things about Nosebleed, and still she was doing her best to protect them. He had to do _something._

He squeezed Nosebleed’s hand, then let go. There had to be some other way out. They couldn’t just die here, after getting so far, not with escape right _there_.

He forced himself to scan the screens, eyes skipping over the ones that showed static and a darkness beyond it Mono didn’t have time to deal with right now. Not when it’d so recently been clawing into his head, like something trying to wear him as a suit. He felt all scratched up and shaky, but took strength from his friends standing with him. Nosebleed was falling apart before them, and still _she_ fought for them. He had to push through.

Mono’s gaze alighted on a screen showing a rainy stoop and the murky dark city beyond. Though horizontal bars cut constantly through it, he could put together a rough idea of the surroundings. Dumpsters and TVs, couches left abandoned, mannequin parts spilling down across the dirty ground lit by a flickering, broken street lamp. Nothing alive, it looked.

He climbed up to the table, leaving Six and Nosebleed, who made a fearful, questioning sort of noise.

“I was gonna tell you, I swear,” Mono said, as he placed a hand to the screen, the signal pulsing and wailing as he caught hold, feeling it undulating up his arm as he tried to match it. If he could just connect to one of the TVs out there, he could get them out. Even if it terrified him to do so, it was better than watching Six die. The pitch changed, grew more intense and sharp as the image cleared. He reached for the TVs. “Sorry --”

The image suddenly shifted. Instead of the stoop outside of the hospital, it showed a narrow alley, with tall buildings looming so close their roofs seemed to touch. Figures moved in a line in the pooling darkness between them. The world went black.

  
  
  


**SIX**

  
  
  


Something popped and sizzled like a wire frying. What was Mono doing? Six didn’t dare look around, though, eyes on the more pressing danger. The door was giving way.

Nosebleed’s hand went slack and slipped from Six’s, and she heard a thump as the other girl passed out. Six rolled her eyes. Of all the times.

Then she heard another thud, and only just caught sight of Mono ragdolling off the edge of the table before he hit the ground in an uncomfortable, crumpled pile of limp limbs.

Six gasped and ran over to him, dropping immediately to her knees. She rolled Mono onto his back and pulled off his bag. The bruise on his eye was the only sign of damage, and that was old.

“Hey,” she whispered, shaking his shoulders. Behind her, the door screamed in protest at the doctor’s weight. Mono’s eyes shifted under his lids, but he didn’t wake up.

She glanced up, across the still form of Nosebleed glowing pale and bloody black in the TVs’ light. Mannequin arms reached through gaps where the door had buckled, clawing for them.

Six could escape. They’d burst in and attack Nosebleed, and Six would slip past into the darkness beyond. But she’d have to leave Mono for them, too. If he’d been any other boy, that would have been an easy thing to do, but he was like her, as much as it scared him. He was stupid and noble and wanted to good, not just survive, but he was _like her_. Another Mono wasn’t going to come along ever again, and Six didn’t want another one, anyway.

She crawled forward and caught Nosebleed’s sleeve, dragging her over to Mono. The table, at least, offered some protection, and she’d need a snack after this. She took a deep, steadying breath and got to her feet.

The door fell with an earth-shattering crash. Six stood in the middle of the room, alone, awash in the light of the TVs, facing the roiling darkness beyond.

The things she did for her friend.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like... all of Nosebleed's backstory is just a random dream I had after binging too much LN content.

Rain slicked the stones and sent bits of trash drifting toward guzzling, dark gutters. She held Noddy’s hand, waiting for the vivid, lurching forms of the Child Catchers to pass. Noddy was too little to really know what was going on, but she followed her anywhere. They just had to go slow and careful, so she didn’t trip.

The girl looked back to make sure Noddy was ready, and met bright blue eyes hiding behind a paper bag. “What--” she whispered, eyebrows disappearing up into her bangs, before clamping her mouth shut. Speaking was dangerous. They hunted by sound.

“What’s going on?” Mono asked, and his voice was Noddy’s, timid and weak. His hand in hers was Mono’s, though. She squinted at his face again. Dark eyes, almost entirely black.

The girl shook her head, trying to knock free the image of two people who for some reason was one. Noddy -- no, Mono -- Mono didn’t have blue eyes.

“Six?” Noddy-Mono asked. The girl grabbed a chunk of her hair and pulled it in front of her, terrified at what it’d look like. Blond, like it was supposed to be. She let out a sigh of relief. “No, wait…” his voice trailed off in confusion.

“Shh,” she hissed, instantly feeling bad at how Noddy-Mono cringed away. She wasn’t ever so short with her. Him? Her head throbbed. “We need to go.”

They crept along on a narrow ledge just above the Child Catchers as their silent heads swiveled and scoured the alley for any child stepping out of line, the wilting flowers on their hats shedding petals like snow. Mono’s eyes swept the alley, taking in the silent line of children being soaked by rain and led somewhere far away by their guardians. The girl pulled him along, climbing onto the roof of a shed that led to another wall sandwiched pointlessly between two buildings. Just big enough for children to slip through.

They stopped several yards in, where wind and rain echoed and bounced, drowning out any sound they could make. It didn’t happen like this before (before what?). The girl turned to Mono, caught blue eyes for the briefest moment, but then they were black again.

“What is going on, Mono?”

Mono pulled her hand, looking behind them, before turning a pleading gaze to the girl. “Six, I’m scared. Why did we stop?”

She took a deep breath and tried to pretend she’d not seen a flash of yellow out of the corner of her eye as she turned. She was wearing a frilly dress, not a raincoat. She had wet and stained socks on instead of bare, calloused feet. Her dress shoes had been abandoned, too loud on stone. Yes, she remembered watching them float away to the drains, feeling so sad because her mother had worked hard to buy them. This had… this had all happened before.

The girl pulled Mono along, though he stood tall over her and could easily have outpaced her. Instead, he shuffled along, making wet little sniffles, until they came to an area where the wall crumbled away into an old back yard.

Other children were there. Wilbur helped Mono down, who immediately ran to Button to be picked up. The girl descended more slowly, hand in Wilbur’s for support, eyes on Mono and Button. Watching a seven year old girl hold a boy who had to be at least ten on her hip was…. Strange. Nobody else seemed to find it bizarre, though. Something was wrong, here.

She reached for how this was supposed to play out. Alice. Right. The oldest, and the leader. The girl looked up to her, both figuratively and literally. She was getting them out of this alive.

“Was this everyone?”

“Everyone we could get,” Alice said, a shadow of sadness drifting over her face. It hurt, the girl knew, to leave people behind.

The girl walked over to Wilbur, who had a muddied and poorly sketched map nailed up between bricks. She pointed at an intersection in the alleyways. “Noddy and I saw them going down that alley.” She'd tried to say Mono, but the word slipped out as Noddy, instead.

“They’re going to the greenhouse,” Wilbur announced, tracing the rest of the path.

“We might be able to get more, then!” Alice said, letting some excitement color her tone.  _ No _ , the girl thought.  _ Don’t do this. _ Her voice choked on the words, though. “I heard there’s a time where they just leave the kids in there. If we can break them out...”

_ Don’t go.  _ The girl had such a bad feeling twisting up her guts. Something about the greenhouse. Something awful. She felt herself nodding, instead. “I’ll come with you.”

They gathered what meagre supplies the kids had been able to steal, a bit of rope, flashlights, food and water for anyone they could save, then the two of them bid farewell to their friends and set off on a new path.

The girl had never seen the greenhouse before, though she’d heard of it. A part of an industrial building made up of glass walls, with wild plants growing inside. She didn’t know what happened in there. She doubted anyone did.

Her first glimpse of it was high above, where she could see the dark shadows of vines and branches silhouetted by street lamps pouring what little light they had through the glass. Children were clustered in fearful huddles outside as the Catchers milled around. Alice led her to a fire escape, and they descended on cat’s paws.

Alice and the girl were so intent on their reconnaissance, neither realized they, themselves, were being watched until Mono slipped from one of the rungs with a cry, right onto the girl. She coughed in shock as the air was knocked from her body.

She choked down any further noise as Alice worked to shush Mono, who had his hands up under his paper bag and was making muffled, hiccoughing cries. The girl pulled the bag off of his head, half-expecting to find Noddy’s face. It was Mono, and she felt a strange relief at that. That whatever will happen, she won’t have to look at Noddy. But... Noddy hadn't been here, she thought. Noddy had stayed behind. She was too little to have been able to follow them. Which was a silly thought, since Noddy-Mono was right in front of her.

His face was scrunched up in pain, a tiny bit of blood leaking from his lip. Tears dribbled down his cheeks, mixing with the rain.

“Aw, sweetie,” Alice whispered, pulling Mono’s hands from his face. The girl glanced down at the Child Catchers, making sure none had turned their attention in their direction. So far, so good.

“It’s dangerous here,” the girl whispered, retreating to join them farther from the ledge.

“I- I got scared,” Mono muttered miserably, curling his fingers into the girl’s braid like his life depended on it and leaning all of his weight on the girl. “You went off all the sudden. I thought -- I thought you were leaving me. I don’t -- I don’t wanna -- wanna be -- ” his words devolved into gulping, smothered crying.

She sighed, wrapping Mono in a hug and hiding his face against her chest, so the crying was dampened. “I’m sorry. It’s dangerous here, though. You shouldn’t have followed us.”

“‘M sorry, Six.”

Suddenly and irrationally, she wanted to snap that her name wasn’t Six, but that would only upset Mono more. “It’s okay,” she mumbled instead, repeating it as she rocked his awkwardly bigger frame, hoping that would make him feel better.

Alice’s sharp gasp was all the warning they got before big, gloved hands grabbed at Mono, ripping him from the girl. She lunged forward, latching onto his arms as the Child Catcher tried to drag him away.

“Let Noddy go!” the girl shouted, struggling for any purchase on the slick ground, toes aching as they got dragged over uneven stone.

“SIX! SIX! DON’T LET THEM TAKE ME!” Mono shrieked, dragging his nails across her arms, leaving bloody gashes.

Suddenly, the girl was on the ground, winded again, and Alice was fighting tooth and nail against another Child Catcher who’d crept up on them. Alice had tackled her out of the way.

“Run!” she yelled.

Noddy-Mono was begging for her to save him as the Child Catcher began to walk away. Alice was screaming for her to flee. The girl had only seconds before another monster came. A hand swooped down, catching in the wet folds of her skirt, and she tore herself away with a shriek.

The girl ran, rubbing tears from her eyes that threatened to blind her.

A block away, curled up in a drainage pipe, she sobbed loud and broken, holding herself and rocking. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she cried, thinking of Noddy, thinking of Mono (who was Mono? Had she abandoned him, too?). Of Alice.

Exhaustion set in quickly as her adrenaline faded, leaving the girl a mess of muddy water and wild hair broken free from its braids. Noddy. She couldn’t just leave her behind. Alice had given the girl a chance to save her.

She peeled off her socks, revealing bloodied and banged up toes, and tore at the sleeves of her dress, freeing her arms from any constrictions. The skirt and petticoats ripped easily since tears had already been started, until all that was left was a deflated outer layer that went no lower than her thighs. With no ropes or lights or food anymore, all the girl had was her wits. She’d need to be ready to run, climb, fight.

She didn’t have time to entertain the ache in her muscles or the rasp of air in her throat from running. The girl climbed from her drain and crept along the alleys, sticking to roofs and balconies, dangerous routes where one misstep meant death, but also places the Child Catchers could never reach.

The children were being led into the greenhouse when she returned, and she scanned for Mono’s head, but without his bag and the eternal fall of rain, he looked just like all the other children from up here.

Child Catcher after Child Catcher disappeared inside with the children. She slipped closer. Fewer and fewer figures milled around. Closer. Nobody was in the courtyard. The door closed, but the girl had seen plenty of cracked and missing panes she could enter through.

She crept along the outside, glancing inside at the shapes now moving, trying to discern which were children and which were monsters.

Her eyes caught with bright blue, then black, and Mono was pressed against the glass. “Six!” he mouthed, face lighting up. Relief instantly flooded in. She wasn’t too late.

The girl smiled at Mono, and it was barely even forced. He grinned back, big and wide, all full of teeth. One was missing at the front. How had she not noticed that before? Had she never actually seen Mono smile this full and bright?

Suddenly, his body tensed up, happy expression tight, eyes widening. The girl’s heart froze in her chest, unsure as to what had happened, but knowing it was very, very wrong. This hadn't happened before, but no, it had. This was a memory. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.

A pained tear slipped from the corner of one eye before his hands fell away from the glass, and his expression went slack, eyes drifting blindly up. The change had taken only a second to occur.

He rose up unnaturally, body entirely limp and unresponsive, dangling on something piercing through -- her hands rose to her mouth to stifle the scream -- something was stabbed into his skull at the base, and blood dripdripdripped down to the floor. That was when the girl realized, the greenhouse wasn’t full of vines and trees. They were cords, wires, mechanical arms, all whirring and jerking as they came to life.

Mono’s body receded from the glass, and more arms descended on him, sawing through clothes and skin and bone, dismembering with horrible efficiency, layer by layer. Pieces fell with bloody splashes to a floor filling with even more blood, even more children’s body parts.

The girl hunched over, body spasming as she vomited up what little she’d eaten. It dribbled through fingers pressed so tightly to her mouth that she could taste blood. Mono-- Noddy. Noddy was dead. Noddy was being ripped apart, right before her. Alice, too, the girl was sure. 

Why?  _ Why?  _ What good was this, who did this serve, to chop up children? To hurt and maim and mutilate?

She slammed her fists against the glass, screaming at the arms to stop _ stopSTOP  _ touching Mono, even as they pawed through his remains, unheeding of her wailing.

Hands wrapped around her torso, lifting her kicking and screaming. She scratched at the Child Catcher’s face, tearing off its crumpled tophat, dashing its horrid dead flowers to the ground. Nothing she did stopped it, though. She was too small, too weak.

She hadn’t been able to save Noddy. She couldn’t even save herself.

  
  


**MONO**

  
  


Mono jerked awake with a gasp, as though he’d been drowning. He had a taste of ozone in his mouth, and he felt both exhausted and more awake than ever, as though that twisting little feeling in his belly had been satiated, leaving him to think normally once more. He sat up slowly, disoriented, a hand rubbing at the base of his skull. He'd expected something to be there, but there was only hair.

A needle. His jumbled up brain began to put together what had happened. Not why, or how, but… he’d seen Nosebleed, and that black girl from the photograph (Alice? Had Nosebleed said her name, or did he just imagine it?), and others. Too many. Nosebleed had been so little, then.

Rubbing his head as all these memories and dreams fought their way to the forefront of his mind, Mono tried to remember what reality was. The mannequins. The doctor! He looked around for Six, then relaxed immediately. She was sleeping sitting upright against the wall, head at an awkward angle, a bit of drool hanging at the corner of her mouth, looking perfectly at peace with the world. His own head had been pillowed on her thigh, paper bag set aside.

Mono expanded his search to the rest of the room. They were still where they’d been before, but a wall of mannequin bodies had been piled up, barricading them underneath the table in a jumble of broken limbs. He thought about all the bodies falling to pieces in his dream (Nosebleed’s memory? He was still confused about what had happened). Beyond that, he could faintly make out the great, still form of the doctor, collapsed in the center of the room, more mannequins scattered around him. Safe, then. Mono wasn’t going to question that any further, and moved on to finding Nosebleed, hoping against hope that Six had had the presence of mind to save her before dropping a gigantic adult on her.

He sighed in relief. Nosebleed was curled up a short distance away, shivering as though she was cold. No, wait. She was crying, making little huffy, stuttery noises in her sleep as tears and blood from her nose pooled under her head.

Mono crawled closer, and gently propped her head on his legs, tugging down the cuff of his coat to wipe away the tears and blood.

  
  
  
  


**SIX**

  
  
  


Six woke up slowly, feeling cozy and warm and full. She reached a hand out to pet Mono’s head, something she’d been doing on and off between dozing, but found only air. She straightened, wide awake now.

He was over by Nosebleed, touching her face. Six rubbed at the drool crusting her own mouth and scowled. When Mono looked over, she pointed at the doctor, then at herself. Nosebleed hadn’t done anything. She didn’t deserve his attention.

He smiled, but made no move to leave Nosebleed. “Thanks, Six.”

Six crossed her arms moodily, but felt a little better at the acknowledgement.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> u post too much, i hear u say. but what u do not know is that i am showing _exceptional_ restraint, because i wrote all the rest of the chapters, too, already. and then some.

Her head pounded so hard, she thought it was going to explode. Too full of sudden memories and feelings and hurts. Mono was staring down at her, one eye bruised darker than the other. The girl winced at the reminder that she’d hurt him.

When she tried to get up, Mono helped her, supporting her back and catching her by the shoulders when she almost pitched forward. She clutched her bangs, pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes.  _ Don’t throw up. _

“What happened?” she asked, once her stomach settled a bit.

“I don’t know. Your -- did you dream about your friends?”

She nodded, trying to shove those images back into some forgotten box. “And you.”

Mono was silent for a long moment, before he seemed to shake himself from some reverie and fetched his bag. “We should get out of here. I tried to do this before, but I think I can get us out through the TVs.”

He helped the girl to her feet, though both of them were absurdly unsteady. Six shoved her way between the two, scooping Mono’s arm around her shoulder, followed by Nosebleed’s.

“Six, you’re too weak to --” Mono barely got the concerned warning out before they all stumbled and fell. Nosebleed grit her teeth as the world darkened momentarily. Oh, boy. Now was not a good time to be puking jello all over the place.

That was when she realized they weren’t in danger anymore. The doctor lay dead in a massive, coagulating pool of his own blood, though she couldn’t make out what injuries might have killed him, his mannequin patients fallen around him. “What… what happened?” she asked, climbing unsteadily back to her feet.

Mono looked at Six, then at the girl. “We should get out of here. I can try to explain?” he seemed unsure himself as to what happened.

“Okay,” she said. Focus on the present. Don’t think about the dream (the memory?). That was more important, right now. “How are we getting out, then?” He’d said something about TVs, but that meant nothing to her.

Mono pointed up as he helped Six to her feet. “That way.”

She guessed she’d just have to trust him on this, because that explained nothing. The girl had trusted Mono before, and he’d not let her down.

Weak and tired, the children climbed up onto the table. Mono held Six’s hand, who held the girl’s. He splayed his other palm on the screen.

  
  
  


**MONO**

  
  
  


The hairs on his arm rose in the static-y discharge this close to the TV screen. Mono was confident he knew what to look for, now, and how to avoid crossing signals -- the only way he could think to describe it -- with Nosebleed. He could feel the movements of her energy, flickering one way, then another, across the screen, showing flitting memories in the snow. He tuned away from that, this time, focusing on the signals he knew best. A set visible in the screen flickered to life, and the children vanished from the hospital.

They fell through a tunnel of eyes and doors and flickering screens until Mono found the right one, and they tumbled out in a pile of limbs onto the wet, hard ground. Though it had felt like forever within the TVs, he knew only a second had passed, and the uncomfortable impressions he’d gained of what lay inside were already fading.

Nosebleed shoved herself upright far too fast, then fell back onto her butt, shock written across her face.

While Six climbed to her own feet more slowly, Mono rushed over to Nosebleed. Six knew how it worked, but this was entirely new to Nosebleed. He felt invigorated, body humming with energy, wanting to burn it off just jumping all around. A strange feeling after jumping, which usually just left his skin crawling and a brief weakness in his limbs.

Nosebleed let him support her as Six led the way, a hunter prowling for prey. She must be so hungry, he realized. She’d not eaten since before the hospital, and she expended so much energy protecting them. He glanced at Nosebleed, worry creasing his brows. He was grateful that his bag hid his expression, so she didn’t have to see him worrying about her. At least the rain was washing away the blood she’d wound up caked in, though she still had open wounds that needed tending.

As soon as they came across an alcove made of broken TVs, fallen couches, and other large bits of trash that mostly kept the rain at bay, Nosebleed collapsed gratefully inside. Mono settled down on his knees in front of her, blocking Six from getting inside in a way he hoped Nosebleed didn’t notice. Six had said she wouldn’t eat her, and he trusted her, he  _ did _ , but… there wasn’t any reason to make it more difficult for Six to keep her promise than it had to be.

Above the crowded buildings of the city, the red light on the signal tower blinked. Mono stared at it, feeling its gentle, rhythmic pulse in his veins. They’d gotten much closer to it.

Six bumped into Mono, pulling his attention back to here and now, then pointed toward the darkness of the city, her other hand to her belly.

“Just be careful, okay?” he whispered. She could handle herself, but it still made him nervous when she went out alone. Even if he didn’t like seeing what she got up to when she was hungry.

Six nodded, then scrambled off to hunt.

“Where’s she going?” Nosebleed asked, wincing as she shifted to watch Six disappear into the trash.

“Just… she gets hungry after doing the stuff she did,” he explained, fumbling for a safe version of what Six was up to as he pulled off his bag to see better. “And gets grumpy when she’s hungry. Best to just let her go find some food, you know?”

Nosebleed’s concern didn’t diminish, and it looked like she was about to get up to follow. “Isn’t it dangerous, though?”

“Six can take care of herself, don’t worry about it,” he assured her, quickly pressing a hand to Nosebleed’s shoulder to keep her down. “I need to look after you. You’re really banged up.”

She looked down at herself, as though only now seeing all the blood and tears in her gown. Mono was more than a little worried at how unfocused her gaze would get, as though she was disappearing somewhere mentally and struggled to drag herself back. He hoped he hadn’t messed something up inside her head when they did… whatever that was, back there.

Eventually, Nosebleed muddled through her thoughts and nodded. She hiked her gown up high enough for Mono to see the worst of the injuries, a poorly wrapped cut on her leg and long, thin gouges down her stomach from the glass. He blushed at seeing a girl in her underwear, but pushed it quickly aside. The wrapping around Nosebleed’s leg was clearly Six’s handiwork. She couldn’t tie a knot to save her life, and it showed as the impromptu bandage was practically falling off already.

“Let me get some water,” he said, searching for anything clean enough to catch rain in. He found a tin can and scrubbed it out as best he could with the corner of his coat, then set it just outside of their alcove.

Carefully, he unwound the cloth, apologizing each time Nosebleed hissed as it pulled away with dried blood. There was no way they’d find a cleaner cloth out here than that one, so he would have to wash and reuse it, gross as it already was.

“What happened back there?” Nosebleed asked quietly, leg propped across Mono’s knees as they waited for the can to fill with water. “What  _ are _ you guys?”

“Well, Six is Six,” he said, trying to be casual and move the subject along. “I’m… I don’t know. That’s never happened before. I didn’t mean to do that.” Mono rubbed the back of his head, feeling a phantom needle jabbing in. “I’m… I’m sorry. I don’t think I should have seen it.”

“It’s okay,” Nosebleed said quietly. “Was it... real? Is Noddy really dead? I was so sure she was still alive.”

Mono chewed his lip. That had happened so long ago. It wasn’t his fault. It couldn’t have been. “I’m sorry.”

Nosebleed shook her head. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said, and Mono had to smile a little in relief. He kept telling himself that, but it helped to hear someone else assure him, too. “Oh, your tooth,” she suddenly said, looking at his mouth. Her hand rose and pushed his lip up, exposing the gap. “I… I saw it, in my dream. I hadn’t noticed it before, though.”

Mono’s tongue instinctively found the gap where his tooth had been as she pulled away. It had been loose for a while, and he’d almost swallowed it when he’d tripped running away from some Viewers. He barely even thought about it now, though, except to check if he could feel his adult tooth growing in. “It just fell out like normal,” he assured her.

That was the wrong thing to say, apparently, as all the sudden Nosebleed was in his arms, crying into his chest. Her hands fisted into his coat, shaking and white.

“I saw you  _ die _ , Mono. I saw you die like Noddy did. I saw it! I saw it, and I couldn’t stop it!” She cried, the sounds muffled under rain and cloth. Her words gave way quickly to heart wrenching sobs. Occasionally he could make out names and apologies, but most of it was lost as she choked on her own pain and loss.

Mono didn’t think he’d lost anyone like that, seen them butchered alive right before his eyes after trying so desperately to save them. He couldn’t fathom how it must have hurt. Awkwardly, he wrapped his arms around Nosebleed, hugging her tight and letting her cry herself into exhaustion as he mumbled weak comforts and rubbed circles on her back

Eventually, the wracking movements of her shoulders slowed, even if they didn’t stop completely, and she pushed herself back until Mono broke the hug. She rubbed roughly at her eyes, which were red-ringed and puffy now. “Sorry,” she muttered.

“It’s fine,” Mono said immediately, and that felt like such an inadequate response. He caught her hands when they went to rub again at her eyes. “Please, stop. You’re gonna hurt yourself if you keep doing that.”

Her fingers flexed, and Mono could feel the tendons in her wrists moving as she clenched and unclenched her fists in time with her unsteady breathing. He studied her face, tear-streaked and flushed, trying to figure out what was running through her mind. He wondered if she’d come with them, still, without someone to save.

Nosebleed looked up at him, as though trying to puzzle out his thoughts as well. Then she leaned forward, closing the very small distance Mono now realized between them, and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. Mono felt the wetness of tears and blood.

“Try not to die on the way to the tower, okay?” she said, leaning back with an attempt at a smile. “I don’t think I could handle seeing it again.”

“You’re still coming with us?” Mono asked, trying to smother an inappropriately big grin or die as all his blood rushed to his cheeks. The amount of relief he felt that they wouldn’t be doing this alone made him ashamed, but he couldn’t hide the joy it gave him, too. “Even though -- y’know?”

Nosebleed rubbed at her eyes, much more gently this time.

“I couldn’t save Noddy, or Alice, or the rest. But they aren’t the only kids in the world.” She took a shaky breath, looking out toward the signal tower. “I just… I need to do  _ something _ to help.”

“Right,” Mono said, giving up on fighting down his smile. He put his hand on her knee. “We’ll save everyone we can.”

Nosebleed smiled back, stronger this time, and covered his hand with her own.

Mono quickly busied himself with the bandages and water.

  
  
  
  


**SIX**

  
  
  


Rats weren’t cutting it. She’d caught two already, and their blood and fur coated her front. But Six was still hungry. She needed bigger prey.

Unlike the Maw, the city wasn’t crawling with children. It hadn’t been too much of a problem, before, but before she’d always had Mono to help her fight and flee. She’d never had to take an adult head-on by herself. She’d won, of course, but it had really cost her.

If only there was a child around. One with a bloody nose and stupid braids. That would make Six’s hunt much shorter and easier.

But now Mono was awake to stop her from eating Nosebleed. Oh, and she had promised him she wouldn’t, she guessed, but it wasn’t like he could get her to uneat Nosebleed if she’d happened to slip. Six should have eaten her in the hospital, while they were both passed out. Then she could have justified it. But she’d been so tired after, and Mono wasn’t waking up, so she was worried and distracted, to boot. She wound up just passing out for she had no clue how long.

Her stomach grumbled, sending her bent double as hunger wracked her body. Not eating her had been such a mistake. Six squatted down, teeth grit, waiting for the pangs to pass. 

When they did, she tried to approach this hunt more logically. Where were children kept? Not in cages, here. The hospital had had rooms of them, at one point, she guessed, but she couldn’t get back in there to see if any had been missed by the doctor besides Nosebleed.

Bedrooms, then? Houses? Mono said he had come from a place with living rooms and kitchens, where children might have once been. Six scoured the buildings around her for any sign of life that wasn’t a TV screen.

There. A window lit up by the steady, yellow glow of a lamp. It was only a story up, and she easily traced a path she could take to climb up to that window.

Ignoring the shakiness in her limbs, because who had time for weakness, Six began to climb.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mono is an idiot, that is all

The girl looked very pointedly away as she held up her gown and Mono scrubbed at the dried up blood on her stomach with the wet cloth. The water was cold, raising gooseflesh all along her arms. At least that cooled the flush. She was dying inside of a very juvenile embarrassment that made the air around them tense, neither really knowing what to say anymore.

Why had she kissed him? That was so stupid. She’d never kissed anyone before, but he’d been so nice to her, and she’d been so terrified by the images of him dying, and the likelihood that he would die in the future, so she’d just done it without thinking. Even though he seemed to be okay with it, she hoped it wouldn’t make things awkward between them forever.

Mono washed the strip of cloth again, then began to wrap it more securely around her leg. He tied it off and tucked the ends in, then gave it a pat, before seeming to realize how weird that was and shuffling back.

“I, uh. I’m done. It’s not too tight, is it?” he asked, pulling at his sleeves, as obviously embarrassed as the girl felt.

The girl pushed her gown back down and climbed to her feet. It still hurt, but she could stand without shaking to pieces. “It’s good,” she announced after a few trial steps, then sank down again.

They sat in silence, Mono fiddling with his bag and sleeves and anything he could, the girl with her hands fisted on her knees, looking everywhere but Mono. The rain fell down in soft sheets, tattooing a variety of sounds on metal, glass, and fabric. It was almost peaceful.

“Six has been gone a while,” she said, breaking the silence, because she didn’t want to think about the kiss, or the deaths.

“Yeah,” Mono informed his bag. “Sometimes it takes a while for her to find someon-- something to eat.” He froze up like a mannequin with a light shone on it, his blush giving way to a horrified pallor.

“What?”

“Just.. uh… rats, and stuff. She used up a lot of fuel protecting us.”

The girl squinted suspiciously at him. She supposed that was one way to move past the kiss. “Yeah, about that. What did she do, exactly?”

Mono shrugged a surprisingly guilty shrug, which the girl didn’t realize was possible. “I don’t know. I was with you, uh, up here.” He tapped his head. “Which, really weird, by the way. Is that something the doctor did to you? Something like what was done to me?” He began fumbling in his pockets for the doctor’s book.

While those were entirely valid questions, the girl knew Mono was just trying to change the subject. She climbed carefully to her feet and took a step toward the opening. Mono leapt to his own and held out a hand to support her. Or stop her, she wasn’t really sure. The tension between them was for a very different reason, now.

“Where, uh, where are you going?” he asked, forced nonchalance in every syllable.

“I need to pee,” she said, making sure she kept her voice carefully level.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

They stared at one another, then the girl asked slowly, “You… want to come…. With me…. To pee?”

As though realizing that was what he’d just asked, Mono flushed and quickly shook his head. He stepped back and very pointedly sank to the ground again. “No, no. Sorry. Just… wanted to make sure you were steady, you know? Don’t go too far. We don’t know what’s out there…”

The girl watched him a moment longer, biting her tongue on her thoughts about what was out there, then walked gingerly out of the alcove. Six had gone to the left, she thought, so that was where she went.

Her progress was slow and cautious, unsure of what Six was doing or could do. The girl wasn’t even really sure how to find Six, if she’d gone anywhere but the alley. If she could teleport or had some other messed up ability that she didn't know about. So she continued her wary search.

Unluckily, a child’s scream cut through the air, and the girl had a suspicion of what she’d find if she followed it. Six had licked her and bit her far too much for her to pretend Mono’s slip-up was just a mistake, strange and horrific as that was to consider. Six was just a little girl, she'd thought. She started running, a limping, pathetic gait, until she got to where she thought the noise had come from.

Nobody in the alley. Another cry, weaker, from up higher. The girl saw a window broken open, spilling golden light that made the rain sparkle.

Teeth grit against the pain of her injuries, the girl began to climb up to the window, from box to box to gutter to crumbling brick, until her hands caught at the windowsill. Her toes dug into the mortar between bricks, making for a precarious perch as she peeked over the edge.

Six had her back to her, crouched over a small figure writhing in a pool of blood. There were no more screams, but it looked like the child had put up as much of a fight as they could. Bedding was dragged to the floor, blood splashed the wall. A hand groped blindly across carpet for something, anything to get Six off as she tore and bit and fed. The girl remembered the terror of waking up to Six biting her, the struggle to get her off. That, she realized now, had been Six simply playing some messed up game. This was a real hunt, and Six was as efficient as she was violent. The hand stilled. She was too late. Again.

The girl’s fingers slipped from the rain-slicked windowsill, and she choked on a cry that would alert Six to her presence. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the impact of hard asphalt on her back.

Instead, she collided with something soft and wet and distinctly Mono-shaped.

  
  
  
  


**MONO**

  
  


She knew. She knew, and it was all his fault. Mono smacked his palms against his head, as though he could knock all his stupid stupidness right out of his brain. Why did he have to say that? Why couldn’t he have just kept his mouth _shut_? He hadn't even thought about it, because so often he was talking to Six, and it was okay to talk about with Six. They understood each other. She listened to him when he asked her not to eat, to limit her meals as much as she could. It was a horrible thing to do to her, but she did it, for him. Nosebleed didn’t think like that, though. She didn’t know what it was like, to be hungry for something food couldn’t satiate. Even Mono had no clue how deep Six’s hunger ran, how much she suffered for him, though he felt that same loathsome need. While he was a puddle, she was a devouring ocean, and Nosebleed was too good, too nice and caring and brave to know what that was like.

Nosebleed shoved herself off of Mono like he was infected with something, her brown eyes roving between him and the window. She took a step back, then another, then ran.

Mono chased after her. He didn’t know why. He should have let her go, but weren’t they friends? Surely they could talk this out, like they had so much else? He didn’t want to lose Nosebleed, not when they’d only just gotten to really know one another. Not when she was supposed to come with him, to help save everyone they could.

He caught her easily, several yards away, when her leg gave out. She scrambled backwards, until Mono grabbed her arms, then moved to hold her hands in his as he knelt in front of her.

Nosebleed yanked and yanked, tears springing to her eyes, but she was still weak from their earlier ordeals. She hadn’t eaten like Six was doing, or Mono had. And he realized now, looking at Nosebleed’s drawn and shadowed face, feeling the tremors in her hands, that he had been feeding without even meaning to. It wasn’t just the kiss, or the high of traveling through the TVs, that made him feel so good. She was crying now, just like he’d imagined, face all screwed up and bloody, no longer hidden in his shirt because _he'd_ been the one to make her cry. Mono was crying, too, tears salty on his lips.

He splayed his fingers across her mouth, so that she didn’t scream or anything to alert Six.

“I can explain,” he said desperately. “Just -- please, let me explain.”

Nosebleed yanked his hand away from her mouth and hissed, “You said she wasn’t a monster.”

She spoke quietly, good. She was smart. She knew not to attract Six’s attention.

“She’s not, I swear! Six protected us.”

“And she’s _eating a kid_.”

Mono swallowed. It sounded so terrible when she phrased it like that. How could he explain in a way that made sense? “Six… Six needs to eat. We’re just little kids. We can’t fight the world without -- without help. And she wants to help us. That has to count for something, right?”

“She. Is. Eating. Kids. Mono.” Nosebleed yanked at the hand still trapped by Mono’s with each word. Mono tightened his grip on her wrist, knowing as soon as she could, she’d run again. Before he could make her understand. He could feel her pulse pounding underneath his fingers.

“Do you want her to die?”

“Yes!” Nosebleed answered immediately and vehemently. “Let me go!”

“If she dies, she can’t help us, and _even more_ kids will die, too. I thought you wanted to save more kids? You wanted to help?” He caught Nosebleed’s other hand again when she tried to hit him in the face. “This is how we help!”

She started kicking, next, and Mono straddled her legs before she opened the cut on her thigh again, or hurt herself in some new way. Nosebleed’s breath was coming hard and fast as she twisted and fought to break free.

“You’re not helping that kid up there!” she yelled. Mono’s heart leapt into his throat as the words bounced all around the alley. “You’re not -- you don’t _get_ to decide who survives and who doesn’t! Nobody -- nobody does! You don’t have the right, and you know it!”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Mono whisper-yelled, trying to cover her mouth again. Six was going to hear them. She’d promised not to eat Nosebleed, but Mono was afraid she’d hurt her defending him.

“You shut up!” Nosebleed yelled, getting a hand free and shoving him off. She scrambled to her feet, hair a wild mess, eyes burning into Mono, who cowered under her words. “You’re just like the adults! You think you know what’s best, but you don’t! You can’t just let people die because it’ll make winning easier! You’re both monst--”

Six plunged down from a roof, knocking Nosebleed off her feet. Mono heard rather than saw the sharp, nauseating crack of her head bouncing on the asphalt.

Suddenly, it was quiet, but for breathy, pained crying and rain falling.

  
  
  


**SIX**

  
  
  


Six had heard shouting before she’d even realized something was wrong. The boy beneath her was growing cold, chunks missing from his throat and face, gouges torn through his belly by overenthusiastic nails. She sucked blood off her fingers, listening to the noises outside. One of them was definitely Mono, and the other must have been Nosebleed.

She climbed off the boy and back out the window, stalking like a cat from roof to roof, following the sounds of fighting without any rush. Her stomach was full and she still had the taste of the boy’s fear on her tongue. She felt so much calmer and happier, with food and soul in her stomach. It would have been a good night, if not for Nosebleed.

Six flattened to her belly and shimmied closer to the edge once she saw Nosebleed’s blond head. Mono wasn’t wearing his bag, which was stupid and dangerous. Six blamed Nosebleed for that. Mono almost never forgot his bag when in sight of TVs.

He was currently straddling Nosebleed, and they were screaming only inches from one another’s face. Or Nosebleed was screaming. Mono was trying very loudly to get her to shut up.

Six watched lazily, picking bits of flesh out from between her teeth and chewing them into smaller pieces as she got a sense of the problem. They were fighting about her, unsurprisingly. She guessed Nosebleed had seen her eating, which, whoops. Maybe Mono should have tried harder to keep her away from Six, if he hadn’t wanted her to know.

Nosebleed was not taking the news well, which Six thought very rude. She’d gone through the trouble of saving Nosebleed, after all. To eat, yes, if needed, but then she hadn’t needed to! Nosebleed should be thanking her, really.

When Nosebleed shoved Mono off of her, Six’s lackadaisical pose immediately tensed. Mono fell over, and curled up defensively underneath Nosebleed, as though expecting blows.

Six leapt from the roof, launching herself at Nosebleed for daring to even suppose to hit her Mono. The taller girl toppled as they collided, Six’s fingers curled into claws, digging into her face and arm. She was breathing heavily, shakily in the excitement of a second hunt.

“Six!” Mono squeaked, crawling over after a stunned moment of silence. He caught her wrist and tried to tug her fingers away from Nosebleed’s bloodless, terrified face. Six could smell more blood, fresh and warm. “Six, please. You _promised._ ”

She let Mono pull that hand away, but kept her other firmly dug into Nosebleed’s arm, and her knees squeezed tight around her waist. Nosebleed was trembling underneath her, all fight gone, leaving only fear behind.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter actually marks a divergence, where Mono makes a different decision and you get a very different ending (by which I mean a sequel fic). That'll be posted and this chap will be updated after I finish posting this story, though.
> 
> ETA: Chapter is updated at the point where the stories diverge with a link to the alternate ending fic.

Six’s fingers pulled from her face, flat nails leaving crescents that stung all the way across her cheeks and jaw. She reeked of blood and death, and it was all dripping down onto the girl with the rain. She met Mono’s gaze, pleading with him to get her off.

“Six,” he coaxed, body posture low and submissive, like talking to a feral animal. “You already ate. You don’t need to eat Nosebleed.”

Six sat back, then climbed down her body until she was sitting on the girl’s knees. Her fingers dug into her hips, threatening to claw their way right back up if she did anything.

“See?” Mono said to the girl, as though this proved anything good about Six. “She’s good. She just needs to eat, like anyone else.”

The girl kept her lips firmly sealed on any opinion about that. This wasn’t a safe argument to be having anymore, if it ever was. She should have fought him off and kept running, instead of letting herself be drawn into the futile fight of proving to Mono how wrong he was.

She lost Noddy and Alice to the monsters, and the girl had hoped maybe Mono would be different. She thought she could save him, but Six, this monster masquerading as a little girl, had her claws in too deep.

Six got off of her, finally, and she curled up into a pathetic ball, hands pressing onto the back of her head, knees to her chest. They watched as she cried, Mono still sprawled on the ground while Six loomed menacingly, looking for any excuse to attack, the girl assumed. She just wanted her friends. She wished they were somewhere out there, waiting for her, not dead, not -- wait.

Her crying dwindled, wet, stinging eyes staring off into the distance. They had been in that photo Six stole. The holes in her memory were still there, but she knew the basic order of events. That photo was taken after the greenhouse, so Alice and Noddy _hadn’t_ been there to die. But then why did her mind tell her they had?

Finally, Mono moved. He crawled over to the girl and placed his hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be fine,” he said. “We can rest tonight, then move on tomorrow. We'll see what the book says --”

“I’m not going with you.”

“What?” Mono asked, looking genuinely hurt, as though he couldn’t fathom that she’d changed her mind. How delusional was this kid? Delusional enough to say Six wasn’t a monster.

The girl forced herself to sit upright and pretend that Six wasn’t there, that her body didn’t ache anew from having a person launch herself at her, or that she was fighting off unconsciousness even now. “I’m going to find the others."

“They’re dead, though,” Mono said, confusion knitting up his brows. “We saw it --”

She climbed to her feet and swayed, almost falling over when Mono tried to offer support to avoid his touch. “We saw it because of you! I.. I don’t know what you did, or, or why you _would even_ \-- but they’re not dead.”

“You’re bleeding,” Mono said desperately, gesturing to the side of her head.

“ _When am I not bleeding?”_ the girl asked, voice pitching up in pain and frustration and fear. Six tensed, so she forced herself to be calm. To stop shaking, but that was asking the impossible. All she could hope was that it wasn’t too obvious. “Thank you,” she said slowly, every word like pulling teeth, full of lies she’d never expected to say. “For getting me out of the hospital. For… helping me remember. But… But I’m leaving now. Don’t follow me.”

  
  
  


**MONO**

  
  


Nosebleed turned and took an unsteady step away from them. Mono could see a visible, violent tremor shaking through her body with every movement. There was a lot more blood visible from the back, soaking into her pale hair, dripping down her neck. She could barely stay upright. If she left now, she’d be dead within hours, he was sure.

He stepped forward to catch her before she tried to run, but that only caused her to whip around and teeter dangerously.

“Don’t!” she screamed, hands held up, defensively curled in front of her chest. “Haven’t you done enough to me?”

“You said that wasn’t my fault!” Mono cried, bringing his own hands up defensively as well, as though Nosebleed was in any state to actually hurt him.

She yanked at her unravelling braids. “That was before I knew you were a monster, too! I -- I don’t _understand_. Why would you... ” Nosebleed sank down to a crouch, blood pouring in a steady stream from her nose to spatter all across the ground as her distress picked up. “Why would you -- why would -- Noddy-- “ she sobbed, rocking on her heels, the name petering out into a distressed wail.

Mono wanted to go to her, hug her and make her feel better. Even after all she said, even after her telling him to leave her alone. She was hurting and confused. And it was his fault. Mono had never had friends before Six. He didn’t know how it _worked_ , or how much it hurt to fight.

He tried to step toward Nosebleed, but his movements felt like molasses. He made a questioning noise, and saw confusion mimicked in Six’s features. When Mono tried again to reach for her, he moved even more slowly, pushed back by some invisible, strangling force. His breathing came slower and harder, too, as though he was breathing in tar, not air. The already dark world was dimming more, heartbeat sluggish, thoughts struggling to connect across vast expanses of time. He couldn’t _breathe_ \--

Mono dropped to the ground, blessed air rushing into his lungs, wispy and thin and tinged with trash-scents. How it was supposed to be. Reality righted itself with a sickening lurch, like a speeding train crashing into a barricade. His thoughts were flying, heartbeat pounding rapid-fire. He’d faced down death so much, but that -- that made his blood run cold, with a lingering zing of whatever Nosebleed had done threatening more.

Nosebleed was screaming, higher and more panicked than she’d ever hit before. It took a moment for his eyes to focus, to realize Six had attacked again, viciously ripping into her shoulder with her teeth, clawing at her face. Nosebleed was fighting to throw her off, but couldn’t get any leverage. This wasn’t children fighting, this time. This was a hunter defending her friend.

Mono caught Nosebleed’s eyes, and immediately wished he hadn’t. “Mono!” she shrieked, writhing underneath Six, a hand frantically groping for him as the other just barely kept Six at bay.

Mono’s hand lifted. He could pull her off. Six would listen to him. Six had _promised_ . But… His heart still raced from the terror of suffocating, the viscous movements of his own blood as his body refused to move like normal, everything shutting down. It had felt too much like when the TVs trapped him in their glare. Like his body wasn't his own, like he was just some wind-up toy dying down. _Monster_ , she’d called him. She’d called Six. She didn’t _understand_ . She never would.

[She had _attacked_ them.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29703069)

He let his hand fall and scrambled back, then stood. Then ran.

  
  
  


**SIX**

  
  
  


“Mono?” Nosebleed screamed right into Six’s ear. Mono continued running. “MONO!”

Six slapped her hand over Nosebleed’s mouth, and got teeth in her palm for it. She squeaked in offense, not used to being the one getting bitten. She yanked her hand free, shaking away the pain.

Nosebleed finally got her leg under her, and flipped Six off while she was distracted. She crawled away, only making it a few pathetic feet across the rain-soaked alley before Six was on her again, hands in her stupid braids, stiff and sticky with blood. She smashed her face into the ground, cutting off another scream. Nosebleed kept clawing at the asphalt, searching for any purchase to drag herself further.

Six slammed her down again, then a third time for good measure. Nosebleed’s hands went limp. She was breathing, still, but had no power, no fight left. From a history of hunts, Six knew the exact second she had won, and her anger and adrenaline leveled, letting her enjoy the catch.

She crawled off and got her hands under Nosebleed, scrambling to push her onto her back. It was easier to eat from the front, without a spine or shoulder blades in her way. And Mono running off was permission enough for Six to do just that, promise or no. Nosebleed was a threat.

“Mono,” Nosebleed moaned, more blood gushing underneath a bruised and swollen nose. Her cheeks and forehead were all scraped up. Six scowled. She didn’t like her saying his name like that, like he actually meant anything to her, when she’d attacked him. She had almost killed him. Mono shouldn’t have anything to do with her.

Her hands slapped pathetically at Six as Six bent down and bit into her throat, cutting off one last, bubbling scream. Though her screams had died, it took Nosebleed a long, slow while to follow as Six bit and tore and swallowed. She bucked and spasmed underneath her.

Soon enough, everything was still. No heartbeat, no gushing blood. Nosebleed tasted weird, like ozone and tears. But food was food, and that was all Nosebleed was, in the end.

Six sat back, very full and at peace.


	12. Chapter 12

**MONO**

  
  
  


He made it behind a nearby dumpster before his legs gave way, and Mono collapsed, skinning up his palms and knees. Quickly, as though hunted by an adult, he drew his legs to his chest and tried to make himself as small as possible. He couldn’t hear Nosebleed anymore, but was still close enough to hear Six eating. He wished he’d gotten farther away.

Mono covered his ears against the squishy, moist noises. He let Six do that. He let her kill a girl she didn’t need to eat. All because, what? He’d gotten scared? He thought she deserved it?

No, despite what Nosebleed had said, he didn’t think he had a right to decide who deserved what. He just wanted to survive. He wanted Six to survive. Why was that too much to ask for? Why had Nosebleed made it so difficult?

He hunched down somehow tighter, shoulders shaking as he cried, fingers twisted up into his hair.

Was he a monster? He’d fed on her as surely as Six was now, just in ways he didn’t understand. No. No, they’d just shared a dream, and dreams got muddled up all the time. He hadn’t  _ changed _ anything. Not really. She was wrong. She was dead.

Mono needed to get away from here.

He climbed to his feet and ran back down the alley, until he came to a familiar stoop covered in the hospital’s detritus. Mono slammed his palms against the TV, and was immediately hit by the stench of rotting meat as he stumbled back into the room.

Mono covered his nose with his sleeve as he darted past, hoping all the mannequins were dealt with. A few hands scrambled at him, but he kicked them away, and they soon gave up, as though losing all purpose now that their doctor was dead.

He ran through the dark to the hanging bit of sheet rope Nosebleed had left, swaying and glowing faintly in the weak ambient light. It was too high up to reach, she’d been right about that. She’d been so smart, but so, so stupid. His vision blurred, and he rubbed roughly at his eyes.

Mono dragged a chair over and climbed up, jumping the last few inches to catch onto the rope. This was an idiotic mission, but he coudn’t be anywhere around Six right now. Of course he was right. He hadn't _done_ anything to Noddy, but here he was, trying to prove a dead girl wrong.

He struggled to get the vent open with only himself, when before -- before everything had worked out so well then went so horribly awry -- he’d planned on Six to help (to help both of them back up). After some trial and error, he got one hand in, then another, then slipped through. It closed with a resounding bang behind him.

There was Nosebleed’s journal, laying forlorn and forgotten. They were supposed to return to the vents, after turning off the fan. Nosebleed was supposed to come back. Mono sniffled, clutching the journal that meant nothing to him but everything to her to his chest. He should just put it back and leave. He didn’t need to know, because it didn’t  _ matter _ .

Mono slid to his side, holding the blood-stained journal tight, and cried himself to sleep.

He woke up with nightmares leaving a bitter taste on his tongue and crust on his eyes. He didn’t know how long he’d slept, but he felt exhausted, and his shoulder and hip hurt from the hard vent floor. He pushed himself groggily upright. The journal slipped from his lap with a loud thunk, making him jump.

Nosebleed. That’s right. Was Six still… enjoying her? He gulped, her final screams ringing in his mind. The wet sounds that had followed. He shouldn’t have left. It was dangerous to split up. But he couldn't have stayed.

Mono contemplated the journal, with its rusty smears and droplets. Before he could talk himself out of it, he yanked out the photograph that, from a glance in the weak light looked familiar, and shoved it into his pocket alongside the doctor’s journal.

He climbed back down and to the TVs, breath held, then fell into the alley. The angle of the darkness had changed, which suggested time had passed. Mono rubbed at his eyes, realizing he’d forgotten his bag in all the horror happening around (because of) him.

Quickly, mindful now of the TVs everywhere, Mono darted back to the alcove. There it was, where he’d set it aside while talking to Nosebleed. When they had… He bit his lip, hating how quickly the memory of their kiss had turned dark. She’d trusted him, and believed him, and look where that got her.

Mono snatched up his bag and crammed it over his head, hiding his red eyes and raw nose.

He dragged himself slowly toward where he’d last seen Six. She was crouched down where he’d hidden, before, beside the dumpster. He called her with a soft, cautious, "Hey."

Six popped immediately to her feet. There wasn’t any blood left on her, thank goodness. Mono kept his gaze focused intently on Six and nothing else around them, just in case. She held out her hand, and, trying not to think of another hand that should be with theirs, he slipped his into hers.

  
  
  


**SIX**

  
  
  


Six pulled Mono along, heart as light as the rest of her was heavy with food. She’d thrown what remained of Nosebleed into a gutter for rats to eat, which had been a surprising amount, because she really hadn’t had much room for a second dinner so soon after the first. Mono probably wouldn’t have wanted to see just how Nosebleed-looking it had been still by the end, despite how much she’d pulled apart for fun.

They continued on a winding, empty path eternally toward the tower, Six in the lead. Mono didn’t seem to be in any shape to lead them anywhere. Six shook her head fondly. He was so sensitive. People died. Especially people Six didn’t like. She didn’t understand him mourning forever afterwards, but that was just how Mono was.

When he began to stumble and drag her down, Six found a damaged door and kicked and pushed her way inside to check if the immediate area was safe and empty. She reached back through and tugged Mono in, then along to a child’s room she’d found, bed piled with blankets and pillows.

She climbed up and tossed a pillow down at Mono, who just let it hit his face and fall with a soft plop to the floor. Six frowned, then tossed another experimentally. It also just hit Mono and fell. She shoved the blankets and pillows to the floor more quickly after that, and began to set up a cozy little nest underneath the bed while Mono stood there uselessly, one hand in his pocket, the other wiping repeatedly underneath his bag.

Six maneuvered Mono underneath the bed, then crawled in after, shoving him further back until he was all but buried. Six set about situating everything so they were hidden from prying eyes but still able to escape easily if needed. 

When everything was to he liking, she turned to Mono, who had taken his bag off and pulled something out of his pocket. He was crying, looking at it, before crumpling it in a shaking fist.

Six scowled and pressed herself up against him, practically trapping him in the crushing hold of her arms and legs.

Eventually, Mono returned the hug, and Six relaxed. He still held whatever it was in his fist, but this was at least a response. When he tucked his head under her chin, Six shifted into a more comfortable hold and moved her hand to pet at his hair.

“Thanks, Six,” Mono mumbled, cold tears smearing from his face onto her neck. Six didn’t like it, this whole crying business. At least when it came to Mono. She just took comfort in that this would be temporary. With no Nosebleed around, Mono would go back to normal in no time at all. She hoped.

Mono soon went completely lax, chest rising and falling in slow, even breaths so unlike his stuttering crying. Six kept petting him, enjoying the feel of his heartbeat and warmth of his sleeping form. He was her friend and nobody else's, and she'd protect him while he slept off the pain.

His hand fell limp, the crumpled thing he was holding rolling away. Six reached carefully forward to pick it up and unfold it without disturbing him.

It was that picture of Nosebleed’s, but… Six squinted at it. Something was different than last time she saw it. Some children were missing, like a little girl who had been in the front. It wasn’t the same picture after all. But it was something of Nosebleed’s, something Mono was keeping.

Six tore it up, and began to cram the pieces through the cracks in the floor beneath them. She hesitated on the tiny face of Nosebleed, without a single trace of blood.

She ate that one, instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then Six spends ten minutes trying to spit out the gross photo paper. The end!
> 
> Tf are mono's powers? What did he do? Why have I ignored the fic that actually explains them to this point? Bc I got excited about this one, hah. Alternate ending fic coming soon, but for now thank you for reading along! o and if u want to talk LN/LN2 with other fans, <https://discord.gg/XVJXUFj49f>


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